Re: global and static object

From:
David Wilkinson <no-reply@effisols.com>
Newsgroups:
microsoft.public.vc.language
Date:
Wed, 09 Apr 2008 07:28:33 -0400
Message-ID:
<O0CRITjmIHA.4504@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl>
George wrote:

Thanks Alex,

1.

"George" wrote:

It is CRT, not C++ Runtime library calls start-up code to call
constructor
of global/static variable?

I'm not sure which of them exactly calls c'tors and d'tors of a
global object. Anf, frankly, I don't care as long as it works.
It's internal detail of CRT.


CRT is C stuff and constructor/destructor is C++ stuff. I do not understand
how CRT could understand C++ stuff and call constructor and destructor. Any
comments?

2.

Back to my original question, I can not think of a scenario when
global/static variable of ATL classes' constructor/destructor are not called.
In my understanding, all EXE/DLL C++ code links explicitly with CRT or C++
Runtime Library, and constructor/destructor will be trigged by them.

Could you find a scenario when CRT/C++ Runtime Library is not linked with a
C++ EXE/DLL?


George:

I have to say that I always thought that the C Runtime (CRT) just contained
implementation of the C standard library (printf, strlen, etc) and the C++
runtime just contained implementation of the C++ standard library (iostream,
string, STL, etc).

If you use dynamic linking then you must distribute the appropriate runtime. If
you do not use the C++ library, then I am pretty sure that you do not need to
distribute the C++ DLL. You might think that if you do not use any functions of
the C standard library you would not need to distribute the CRT DLL either, but
I think for an executable project this is not true (though it is for a DLL project).

[All this is actually irrelevant for me. First of all, all my distributed
applications are MFC applications, and MFC certainly uses the C standard library
(but not the C++ library, AFAIK). Secondly, I always use static linking, so I
never worry about any of this.]

As to your question, I would have thought that construction and destruction of
global/static objects was part of the core language rather than implemented in
the C or C++ runtime. But it seems this is wrong.

I agree that it may seems surprising that this functionality is handled by the C
runtime rather than the C++ runtime. Perhaps this is done in order to make the
C++ runtime an optional component of any C++ project.

--
David Wilkinson
Visual C++ MVP

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