Fixing cyclic import static construction problems

[Jonathan M Davis]

On Thursday, November 29, 2012 07:36:41 Artur Skawina wrote:
> On 11/29/12 03:34, Walter Bright wrote:
> > Proposed Solution:
> > 
> > Add a pragma,
> > 
> >     pragma(cyclic_imports);
> > 
> > This can appear anywhere in a module, and applies globally to that module.
> > It means that static constructors from imports that are not part of the
> > cycle are run first, and that the static constructor for this module may
> > be run before the static constructors of other modules that are part of
> > the cycle.
> Bad name. Something like "module_ctors_unordered" would be better (I don't
> like that one either, but this way it's at least clear what it does).

no_cyclic_imports would probably be better given that you're trying to get 
around a cyclic import, but I don't see what's unclear about cyclic_imports 
given that that's exactly what the runtime complains about when this problem 
occurs.

> but still has the problem that adding another module ctor
> can result is silent breakage.

That's actually a really good argument IMHO for having to put the pragma or 
attribute on every single static constructor in a module. True, it may be a 
bit annoying, but it would avoid silent breakage.

- Jonathan M Davis