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From: Kilgallen@SpamCop.net (Larry Kilgallen)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Re: Compiler default initialization of array types
Date: 18 Oct 2002 10:04:39 -0500
Organization: LJK Software
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In article <wcc3cr3stc5.fsf@shell01.TheWorld.com>, Robert A Duff <bobduff@shell01.TheWorld.com> writes:
> Kilgallen@SpamCop.net (Larry Kilgallen) writes:
> 
>> Efficiency will depend on the compiler and potentially the operating
>> system.  For package-level data on VMS, compilers that need a lot of
>> zeroed memory will typically emit linker instructions to "fake it"
>> with manipulation of the memory management system.
> 
> The zero-page tricks of VMS are nice, but they couldn't help in the case
> I mentioned.  Nor could compiler optimizations, unless the compiler was
> *really* clever.
> 
> These objects were heap-allocated.  An OS can use virtual-memory tricks
> to produce huge arrays of zero pages, but it seems infeasible to always
> go directly to the OS for every "new".

Certainly.

But if initialization is overwhelming for a particular application,
switching to non-heap allocation (I hesitate to ever use the word
"static" in this newsgroup) might help in some environments.