Consider local procedure scope stack records in MODE OBJFPC:
procedure....
var
R1: TSomeRecord = ();
R2: TSomeRecord;
procedure....
var
O1: TSomeOldObject = ();
O2: TSomeOldObject;
In the case of R1 and O1, it seems the record's fields are initialized
to zero, even though the fields are not specified inside the brackets.
(R2 and O2 are uninitialized - and are not the same as R1 and O1)
Is this guaranteed? Can this change in the future or does it differ
across platforms? This would be a case where modern pascal could really
use some clearly defined language semantics - specifying the behavior of
these situations.
I read in the fpc manual that when the compiler warns that some fields
may not be initialized, they are still initialized (which is a bit
confusing English).
Quote:
"Warning: Some fields coming after ”arg1” weren’t initialized
You can leave some fields at the end of a type constant record
uninitialized (the compiler will initialize them to zero automatically).
This may be the cause of subtle problems."
Regarding "the compiler will initialize them to zero".. this in fact
means that they *are* initialized to "defaults" and saying they are "not
initialized" really I guess means not initialized by "the programmer".
What I wish to confirm is the portability of this syntax and whether it
does initialize fields to zero always, consistently, no matter what
platform, etc. It would be nice if it did, because this would mean there
is no need for a previous "AUTOINIT" feature idea I suggested - it
already exists.
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