C# (and presumably Delphi): why parameterless record constructors are absent

For my link archive.

Full text at: [WayBack] … why the Delphi language does not allow parameterless constructors… – David Heffernan – Google+

Abstract:

+Stefan Glienke deleted his post about parameterless record constructors, presumably due to all the off topic comments.

…

.net at CLR level does allow parameterless constructors on structs. But the C# language bans them: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/saxz13w4.aspx

Jon Skeet posted an answer on SO way back in 2008 on this topic: http://stackoverflow.com/a/333840/ From that answer:

—-
The CLR allows value types to have parameterless constructors, but C# doesn’t. I believe this is because it would introduce an expectation that the constructor would be called when it wouldn’t. For instance, consider this:

MyStruct[] foo = new MyStruct[1000];

…
—-

My guess is that Embarcadero decided to ban parameterless constructors on Delphi records for the same reason. Or perhaps they just copied the rules from C# without realising that the CLR supported parameterless struct constructors.

References:

• [WayBack] Why can’t I define a default constructor for a struct in .NET?
• [WayBack] Structs (C# Programming Guide)
• [WayBack] Restore requirement for struct constructors to always have formal parameters. #1029

–jeroen