[fpc-devel] Are global variables guaranteed to be zero?

[Mark Morgan Lloyd]

michael.vancanneyt at wisa.be wrote:
> On Thu, 29 Nov 2012, Alexander Klenin wrote:
> 
>> On Wed, Nov 28, 2012 at 2:29 PM, Jonas Maebe 
>> <jonas.maebe at elis.ugent.be> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Will global variables and static global arrays be always initialized to
>>>> zero?
>>>
>>> Yes.
>>
>> Then I suggest to amend the first paragraph of
>> http://www.freepascal.org/docs-html/ref/refse22.html
>> which directly contradicts this.
> 
> It does not directly contradict this ?
> 
> For local variables the statement is 100% correct.
> You must initialize local variables.

Are there cases where locals are set to a sane initial state, e.g. for 
strings and dynamic arrays? What about (references to) objects?

-- 
Mark Morgan Lloyd
markMLl .AT. telemetry.co .DOT. uk

[Opinions above are the author's, not those of his employers or colleagues]