Misleading error message

[lpinca]

• Version: v11.4.0
• Platform: macOS
• Subsystem: assert

$ cat t.js 
const assert = require('assert');

function StorageObject() {}
StorageObject.prototype = Object.create(null);

assert.deepStrictEqual(new StorageObject(), {});

$ node t.js 
assert.js:86
  throw new AssertionError(obj);
  ^

AssertionError [ERR_ASSERTION]: Values identical but not reference-equal:

{}

    at Object.<anonymous> (/Users/luigi/t.js:6:8)
    at Module._compile (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:723:30)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:734:10)
    at Module.load (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:620:32)
    at tryModuleLoad (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:560:12)
    at Function.Module._load (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:552:3)
    at Function.Module.runMain (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:776:12)
    at executeUserCode (internal/bootstrap/node.js:342:17)
    at startExecution (internal/bootstrap/node.js:276:5)
    at startup (internal/bootstrap/node.js:227:5)

The assertion fails because the objects have a different prototype. The same assertion produces a different message in other cases, for example:

$ cat t.js 
const assert = require('assert');

assert.deepStrictEqual(Object.create(null), {});

$ node t.js 
assert.js:86
  throw new AssertionError(obj);
  ^

AssertionError [ERR_ASSERTION]: Expected values to be strictly deep-equal:
+ actual - expected

+ [Object: null prototype] {}
- {}
    at Object.<anonymous> (/Users/luigi/t.js:3:8)
    at Module._compile (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:723:30)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:734:10)
    at Module.load (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:620:32)
    at tryModuleLoad (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:560:12)
    at Function.Module._load (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:552:3)
    at Function.Module.runMain (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:776:12)
    at executeUserCode (internal/bootstrap/node.js:342:17)
    at startExecution (internal/bootstrap/node.js:276:5)
    at startup (internal/bootstrap/node.js:227:5)

cc: @BridgeAR

[BridgeAR]

@lpinca do you have a suggestion how the first object should look like? I am struggling a bit finding a good representation. It's not the objects prototype that is null but the objects prototype itself has a null prototype.

One way could of course be to special handle this in assert directly but that would require quite some work around to make that happen.

[lpinca]

I honestly don't know, can't think of a good representation :)