What’s the motivation behind having copy and direct initialization behave differently?

by

Only a speculation, but I am afraid it will be hard to be more certain without Bjarne Stroustrup confirming how it really was:

It was designed this way because it was assumed such behaviour will be expected by the programmer, that he will expect the copy to be done when = sign is used, and not done with the direct initializer syntax.

I think the possible copy elision was only added in later versions of the standard, but I am not sure – this is something somebody may be able to tell certainly by checking the standard history.

More Related Contents:

  1. C++ cannot initialize static data member [duplicate]
  2. Do the parentheses after the type name make a difference with new?
  3. How to initialize private static members in C++?
  4. Why is list initialization (using curly braces) better than the alternatives?
  5. What is the easiest way to initialize a std::vector with hardcoded elements?
  6. Array[n] vs Array[10] – Initializing array with variable vs numeric literal
  7. Finding C++ static initialization order problems
  8. Uninitialized variable behaviour in C++
  9. static initialization order fiasco
  10. If a function returns no value, with a valid return type, is it okay to for the compiler to return garbage?
  11. Why are references not reseatable in C++
  12. When are static C++ class members initialized?
  13. How to initialise memory with new operator in C++?
  14. Object creation on the stack/heap?
  15. Using newly declared variable in initialization (int x = x+1)?
  16. C++11: Correct std::array initialization?
  17. What are primitive types default-initialized to in C++?
  18. Now that we have std::array what uses are left for C-style arrays?
  19. C++: rationale behind hiding rule
  20. C++: Where to initialize variables in constructor [duplicate]
  21. Different ways of initializing an object in c++
  22. Uses for anonymous namespaces in header files
  23. Why must const members be initialized in the constructor initializer rather than in its body?
  24. What happens if a constructor throws an exception?
  25. How could comma separated initialization such as in Eigen be possibly implemented in C++?
  26. Initialization difference with or without curly braces in C++
  27. Why does (i|o)fstream take a const char* parameter for a file name?
  28. Initializing an std::array of non-default-constructible elements?
  29. What is the order of evaluation in a member initializer list?
  30. C++ default initialization and value initialization: which is which, which is called when and how to reliably initialize a template-type member

Leave a Comment