We used to call it "static initialization" - which contrasted with dynamic initialization.
From: Ext <ext-bounces@lists.isocpp.org> on behalf of Barry Revzin via Ext <ext@lists.isocpp.org>
Sent: Sunday, November 22, 2020, 7:16 AM
To: Evolution Working Group mailing list
Cc: Barry Revzin; C++ Education Reflector
Subject: Re: [isocpp-ext] "constinit" seems to be very confusing
Starting to learn and document C++20, I just realized that
the keyword "constinit" seems very confusing.
Every naive programmer would assume it means "init a const",
but it seems the const is simply wrong; it is the opposite.
Or as Jonathan Müller wrote in a talk:
constinit = constexpr - const
Now I wonder how to teach that.
Could somebody elaborate please why we have chosen this name
and what is the best way to make this name plausible to ordinary
programmers?
Thanks
Nico
The name comes from mandating that we perform constant initialization for this variable.
Barry