Program size, linking matter, and static this()

[Steven Schveighoffer]

On Fri, 16 Dec 2011 15:58:28 -0500, Jonathan M Davis <jmdavisProg at gmx.com>  
wrote:

> On Friday, December 16, 2011 14:44:48 Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:

>> As another matter, there is value in minimizing compulsive work during
>> library startup. Consider for example this code in std.datetime:
>>
>> shared static this()
>> {
>> tzset();
>> _localTime = new immutable(LocalTime)();
>> }
>>
>> This summons the garbage collector right off the bat, thus wiping off
>> anyone's chance of compiling and linking without a GC - as many people
>> seem to want to do. And that happens not to programs that import and use
>> std.datetime, but to program using any part of the standard library that
>> transitively imports std.datetime, even for the most innocuous uses, and
>> even if they never, ever use _localtime! That one line essentially locks
>> out 75% of the standard library to anyone wishing to ever avoid using
>> the GC.
>
> This, on the other hand, is of much greater concern, and is a much better
> argument for using the ugly casting necessary to get rid of the static
> constructors, even if the compiler did a fanastic job at cutting out the  
> extra
> cruft in the binary - though as far as the GC goes, it might not be an  
> issue
> once CTFE is good enough to create classes at compile time that still  
> exist at
> runtime. Unfortunately, the necessity of tzset would remain however.

This can be solved with malloc and emplace

-Steve