Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!ames!amdcad!sun!pitstop!sundc!seismo!uunet!mcvax!cernvax!hslrswi!robert
From: robert@hslrswi.UUCP (J. Robert Ward)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++
Subject: Re: Ordering of initialisation of static classes in *different* files ?
Keywords: ordering of static initialisation
Message-ID: <735@hslrswi.UUCP>
Date: 19 Jan 88 10:44:36 GMT
References: <734@hslrswi.UUCP> <218@goofy.megatest.UUCP>
Reply-To: robert@hslrswi.UUCP (J. Robert Ward)
Organization: Hasler AG, CH-3000 Berne 14, Switzerland
Lines: 45

The story so far - here is my starting comment:
>> It seems to me that there is a (small) defect in the definition of
>> the C++ language.  Namely, the order in which static objects are
>> initialised is apparently undefined when more than one source file
>> is under consideration.

In article <218@goofy.megatest.UUCP> djones@megatest.UUCP (Dave Jones) writes:
>
>On page 289, it says "Constructors for non-local static objects are called
>in the order they occur in a file...".  I find nothing about ordering
>of constructor calls for objects declared in separate files.  A little
>thought will convince you that it would be a non-trivial job to assure
>proper order of construction.

I agree that this is decidedly a "non-trivial job". However, it seems
to me that guaranteed ordering of initialisation is required if one
wants to write self-contained and independent modules that themselves
use objects from other libraries. I think my example of cout not being
properly initialised in good time illustrates this.

As Dave Jones points out, it is possible to work around this problem
*in this example*, but surely I shouldn't have to resort to such
subterfuge. And besides, who says such work arounds are always available ?

At the risk of being mercilessly flamed (no religious wars here, please!)
I wish to point out that this problem is solved in Modula-2 so that
modules relying on other objects being properly initialised can indeed
do so (this is about the only good thing M2 has going for it, but that's
a different story).

Any further comments ?

Cheers,
	- R.


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