If there is assert() in script, function call for assert() is issued at execution. (If assert is not active, it returns TRUE simply)

It may be nice if there is "--disable-assert" option so that  disable assert() function calls completely for production script. Especially if there are MANY assert() in scripts. I don't see any reason to call assert() for production scripts just to return TRUE, even if it a little overhead. 
(I'll use a perl script that comments out all assert() from production scripts for the time being. There are more than 500 assert in my scripts :)

There are sevral options
1) Change zend_compile.c
2) Change zend_execute.c
3) Implement assert in Zend
4) Leave as it is. Educate users to comment out assert() for production scripts.
5) Leave as it is. Because it doesn't hart performance much.
6) Other?
It seems this can be done with little change  
ZEND_DO_FCALL to ignore assert() in zend_execute.c
or
"zend_do_begin_function_call" to ignore assert() in zend_compile.c

1) or 2) may be easier to implement, but it breaks concept of modulality. 3) is most preffered. 4) is good enough, since it's trivial text subsutitution.
What do you think?