Walter Bright wrote:
Regan Heath wrote:
So, this needs to work when compiling modules seperately and then
linking, likewise libraries, right? Is that the problem you're
referring to?
Yes.
Couldn't you store a list of dependencies in usage order in the output
of the compile (the .o[bj] file) and use these lists when linking to
resolve module init order. You would need to know the 'main' module
for a starting point, but from there you should be able to create an
ordering. You'd probably want to treat a static library as a single
dependency, likewise C libraries etc.
Then you'd have to essentially build the linker into the compiler.
Ah.. I'd have thought using 'import' as you currently do was the same
sort of thing, but I guess I don't know enough about how compilers work :)
The thing that suddenly seemed odd to me, and the reason I wanted to see
how C# did it was the fact that you're using 'import' to determine
whether/when something needs to be initialised, when in fact 'import'
doesn't guarantee the thing is actually used at all.
I can import something erroneously into a module, then never actually
use anything in that module, or, use only one pure function that doesn't
use the static needs-to-be-initialised data.
Using 'import' is always going to produce more false positives, but I
guess it also cannot produce a false negative.
R
