Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!think.com!spool.mu.edu!uunet!taumet!mike
From: mike@taumet.com (Michael S. Ball)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++
Subject: Re: bug with making C++ functions have C linkage ?
Message-ID: <696@taumet.com>
Date: 28 Apr 91 17:49:46 GMT
Article-I.D.: taumet.696
References: <1991Apr16.122905.23613@cs.nott.ac.uk> <675@taumet.com> <1991Apr22.081254@Unify.com> <306@nazgul.UUCP>
Reply-To: mike@taumet.UUCP (Michael S. Ball)
Organization: Taumetric Corporation, San Diego
Lines: 28

In article <306@nazgul.UUCP> bright@nazgul.UUCP (Walter Bright) writes:
>In article <675@taumet.com>, steve@taumet.com (Stephen Clamage) writes:
>/ In general, C++ programs will require initialization of static objects
>/ via their constructors at runtime; cout is such an object.  The C++
>/ compiler arranges for the constructors (and destructors) to be called
>/ via special code emitted in the module in which main() appears.
>
>This is not the way Zortech C/C++ works. There, the static constructors
>are called by the startup code before main() is called, so it doesn't
>matter if main() was compiled with the C or the C++ compiler. In fact

In fact, C++ compilers which define their own linker format, or which
have access to a linker format which provides multiple named sections
(psects, etc) can and should do it this way.  The Borland C++ system
does exactly that, as does the Oregon Software VMS compiler.  Unfortunately,
the majority of the C++ implementations for other environments are
forced to cope with the antequated UNIX linkers which don't give
you any way to do this.  It appears that ELF will finally let UNIX
implementors handle initialization rationally.

The consequence is that the majority of different C++ compilers require
that the main program be compiled with C++, while those compilers
with the largest number of instances each (MSDOS compilers) don't.

On a UNIX-oriented network, Steve's comments are accurate.
-- 
Michael S. Ball			mike@taumet.com
TauMetric Corporation		(619)697-7607