>>ANS X3.159-1989 3.5.7 Initialization
[...]

>I don't know the context here (I haven't looked up the standard), but
>this appears to apply to object oriented programming ('object' and
>'member' are OOP related ).
[...]
>Does this standard refer to initialization for objects in OOP programming?

The standard for C++ has similar language, but this particular quote refers
to ANSI/ISO C only. It is the C language specification. Specifically:
ANSI X3-159-1989: "American National Standard for Information Systems--
Programming Language-- C"

>Also, as far as I am aware, C compilers don't have to meet any
>standards to be called 'C'.  They have to meet the ANSI standard
>to be ANSI compliant of course.  So the maker of the compiler
>could initialize them or not, as it suited their needs.

True. Though most compilers try to be as close as reasonable to the ANSI
standard even when they don't fully comply so as to enhance code
portability. Things get tricky regarding different vendors' definitions of
"reasonable."

As another example, many C compilers for 8-bit architectures, at least
optionally, suppress the integer promotions for integer arithmetic. That
allows much more reasonably sized code at the expense of some subtle
differences in expression results when compared to a strictly conforming
implementation.

        Jim


James Grosbach
Development Systems
Microchip Technology
james.grosbach@microchip.com