Replaced testthat function

[meetagrawal09]

Description

The PR tries to remove use of testthat outside of unit tests and replace it with assertthat
This PR does not replicate efforts made in #3067
PR tries to fix #2987

Motivation and Context

Review Time Estimate

• Immediately
• Within one week
• When possible

Types of changes

• Bug fix (non-breaking change which fixes an issue)
• New feature (non-breaking change which adds functionality)
• Breaking change (fix or feature that would cause existing functionality to change)

Checklist:

• My change requires a change to the documentation.
• My name is in the list of CITATION.cff
• I have updated the CHANGELOG.md.
• I have updated the documentation accordingly.
• I have read the CONTRIBUTING document.
• I have added tests to cover my changes.
• All new and existing tests passed.

[meetagrawal09]

@Aariq I would like to know if there are any other potential places where the change is needed

[Aariq]

@Aariq I would like to know if there are any other potential places where the change is needed

I don't know. In RStudio you can use "Find in files ..." in the Edit menu to search for testthat or maybe expect_

[meetagrawal09]

I don't know. In RStudio you can use "Find in files ..." in the Edit menu to search for testthat or maybe expect_

Followed this. There are no other places which need to be updated.

[meetagrawal09]

Can you guide me what further changes need to be made ( or commands need to be run ) in-order to make the checks pass and if the change made to this function seems correct ?

[Aariq]

I think maybe you need to run this script: https://github.com/PecanProject/pecan/blob/develop/scripts/generate_dependencies.R

[meetagrawal09]

This PR covers all the instances of testthat being used outside of unit testing which have not already been a part of #3067
The work on this PR is complete and it is ready for a review