I don’t know that the compiler cares what’s in the TypeInfo, it uses it’s own internal representation I think. This is a communication to druntime of how to initialize the type. The idea is not to take up data in the static section with zero bytes.

You will see it used in the runtime, for example: https://github.com/D-Programming-Language/druntime/blob/master/src/object.d#L2592

It’s probably used elsewhere too, but I’m not sure where to look.

-Steve

On Jun 11, 2015, at 8:02 AM, Mike Franklin via dmd-internals <dmd-internals@puremagic.com> wrote:

There is a comment [1] in object.d for TypeInfo.init reading:

"Return default initializer.  If the type should be initialized to all zeros, an array with a null ptr and a length equal to the type size will be returned."

Also, I see where the null pointer is set in typinf.c [2].  


Using int as an example, how does the compiler go from a null pointer and a size to a 32-bit 0?  Where is that done in the compiler?


[1] https://github.com/D-Programming-Language/druntime/blob/master/src/object.d#L286-L287
[2] https://github.com/D-Programming-Language/dmd/blob/master/src/typinf.c#L460


Thanks for the help,
Mike
_______________________________________________
dmd-internals mailing list
dmd-internals@puremagic.com
http://lists.puremagic.com/mailman/listinfo/dmd-internals