Comment # 5
on bug 178
from Ketmar Dark
see the part about CTFE here: http://dlang.org/function.html#interpretation
one of the features of D is that it can run code in *compile* *time* (hence the
"CTFE" term — it's "Compile Time Function Evaluation"). compiler can run D code
while compiling your source and use the result to initialise variables.
in your case compiler tries to evaluate `Reset_Handler()` and use it's return
value to init array element. it's a very powerful feature, as you can calculate
various tables without resorting to external "generators". i, for example,
using that to generate parity flag table in my Z80 emulator:
auto genParityTable () {
ubyte[256] t;
foreach (immutable f; 0..256) {
int n, p;
for (n = f, p = 0; n != 0; n >>= 1) p ^= n&0x01;
t[f] = (p ? 0 : 1);
}
return t;
}
private immutable ubyte[256] tblParity = genParityTable();
here compiler executes `genParityTable()` when it compiling my code and using
it's result to init `tblParity`.
it's vital to understand that `tblParity` is initialized in COMPILE time, there
is no runtime function calls.
the power of D, yeah.