Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!att!ulysses!andante!alice!ark
From: ark@alice.UUCP (Andrew Koenig)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++
Subject: Re: Help!
Keywords: constructors, C++ i/o, extern
Message-ID: <9573@alice.UUCP>
Date: 7 Jul 89 04:04:21 GMT
References: <2774@ssc-vax.UUCP> <4443be62.1ad5a@apollo.COM>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Liberty Corner NJ
Lines: 33

In article <4443be62.1ad5a@apollo.COM>, vasta@apollo.COM (John Vasta) writes:

> The cout object from the stream library must be initialized when the
> program starts up. So does your myjunk object. The order of execution
> of constructors for static objects in different modules is not defined.

C++ 2.0 does two things to make this less of a bother.

First, the 2.0 stream library goes to some trouble to ensure
that it works correctly even in the face of static constructors
and destructors.

Second, if you have a static object that is local to a function,
that object will be initialized no later than the first time that
the flow of control passes through that declaration, even if
that function is called from a static constructor.

Example:

	struct T {
		T();
	};

	void f()
	{
		static T t;
	};

In this example, T::T() will be called to initialize t no later than
the first time f() is executed.
-- 
				--Andrew Koenig
				  ark@europa.att.com