title: Eclipse Errors/Warnings ignore assert in unused variable analysis
body: <p>I have had 'hidden' bugs due to Eclipse not reporting 'unused' variables because they were used in an assertion (precondition), for example:</p>
  
  <pre><code>public void method(final String text, ...other parameters) {
    assert StringUtils.isNotBlank(text);
    ...
    // The text variable is never used in the method.
    // If Eclipse had reported the variable as 'unused' I would have noticed that something is wrong with the code.
    ...
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I would like to tell Eclipse to ignore assertions when checking for unused variables. I doubt anyone would pass a parameter to only run an assertion on it...
  Also let me know if FindBugs or another tool can do this.</p>