On Wed, Dec 16, 2009 at 1:55 PM, Dave van Soest <dsoest@xs4all.nl> wrote:
Hi all,
The C++ standards document states that it is implementation dependent whether the constructor of a static object is called before entering main() or just before first use (ISO/IEC 14882:2003 section 3.6.2 part 3).
I can't help wondering why the standard leaves this choice open to implementation.
The idea is to allow for costly initializations to be postponed until they are actually needed. For example, if a static object allocates a gig of RAM, that would be wasteful if the static object isn't needed in a particular run of the program.
The compilers/linkers/platforms I tested my library with all enable calling the constructors before entering main() by default, but this behavior is not guaranteed by the language. I currently don't know whether this behavior can be guaranteed in any way. If so, the library may still be useful, but perhaps not for Boost.
No, the behavior can not be guaranteed. What's more, static objects, along with all relevant code, can be deadstripped unless you explicitly call a function from their translation unit (cpp file.) Emil Dotchevski Reverge Studios, Inc. http://www.revergestudios.com/reblog/index.php?n=ReCode