[Issue 12737] static constructor requires call of super constructor

[via Digitalmars-d-bugs]

https://issues.dlang.org/show_bug.cgi?id=12737

--- Comment #3 from Jonathan M Davis <jmdavisProg at gmx.com> ---
The static constructor has nothing to do with the error. Look at my
counter-example. It's exactly the same except for the fact that it has not
static constructor. The problem is that a constructor for B must call A's
constructor, e.g.

class B : A
{
    this()
    {
        super(42);
    }
}

but you didn't declare one, and the one created by the compiler looks like

class B : A
{
    this()
    {
        super();
    }
}

but A doesn't have a default constructor, so that doesn't work, and so the
compiler gives you the error that it's giving you. It's telling you that you
need to either give A a default-constructor so that B's compiler-generated
default constructor will work, or you need to declare a default constructor for
B which calls the constructor that A does have.

static constructors have nothing to do with inheritance and will work just fine
regardless of whether a class has static members (it just won't have much to do
if the class doesn't have any static members). So, if the static constructor in
B were complaining about the lack of one in A, then yes, that would be a bug in
the compiler. But that's not what's happening. The compiler is complaining
about the fact that it can't generate a valid default constructor for B due to
the lack of a default constructor in A.

This code would compile just fine

class A {
        this(int a) {
        }
}

class B : A {
        static this() {
        }

        this()
        {
            super(42);
        }
}

void main() {
        auto n = new B();
}

as would this code

class A {
        this(int a) {
        }

        this() {
        }
}

class B : A {
        static this() {
        }
}

void main() {
        auto n = new B();
}

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