new pragma: 'noinit'

compiler/ast.nim

@@ -237,6 +237,7 @@ type
 const
   sfFakeConst* = sfDeadCodeElim  # const cannot be put into a data section
   sfDispatcher* = sfDeadCodeElim # copied method symbol is the dispatcher
+  sfNoInit* = sfMainModule       # don't generate code to init the variable
 
 type
   TTypeKind* = enum  # order is important!

compiler/cgen.nim

@@ -75,8 +75,8 @@ proc fillLoc(a: var TLoc, k: TLocKind, typ: PType, r: PRope, s: TStorageLoc) =
     if a.r == nil: a.r = r
   
 proc isSimpleConst(typ: PType): bool =
-  result = not (skipTypes(typ, abstractVar).kind in
+  result = skipTypes(typ, abstractVar).kind notin
-      {tyTuple, tyObject, tyArray, tyArrayConstr, tySet, tySequence})
+      {tyTuple, tyObject, tyArray, tyArrayConstr, tySet, tySequence}
 
 proc useHeader(m: BModule, sym: PSym) = 
   if lfHeader in sym.loc.Flags: 
@@ -264,6 +264,7 @@ proc zeroTemp(p: BProc, loc: TLoc) =
            [addrLoc(loc), genTypeInfo(p.module, loc.t)])
 
 proc initVariable(p: BProc, v: PSym) =
+  if sfNoInit notin v.flags:
     var b = containsGarbageCollectedRef(v.typ)
     if b or v.ast == nil:
       zeroVar(p, v.loc, b)

compiler/pragmas.nim

@@ -32,12 +32,13 @@ const
   iteratorPragmas* = {FirstCallConv..LastCallConv, wNosideEffect, wSideEffect, 
     wImportc, wExportc, wNodecl, wMagic, wDeprecated, wBorrow, wExtern,
     wImportcpp, wImportobjc, wError, wDiscardable}
-  stmtPragmas* = {wChecks, wObjChecks, wFieldChecks, wRangechecks, wBoundchecks, 
+  stmtPragmas* = {wChecks, wObjChecks, wFieldChecks, wRangechecks,
-    wOverflowchecks, wNilchecks, wAssertions, wWarnings, wHints, wLinedir, 
+    wBoundchecks, wOverflowchecks, wNilchecks, wAssertions, wWarnings, wHints,
-    wStacktrace, wLinetrace, wOptimization, wHint, wWarning, wError, wFatal, 
+    wLinedir, wStacktrace, wLinetrace, wOptimization, wHint, wWarning, wError,
-    wDefine, wUndef, wCompile, wLink, wLinkSys, wPure, wPush, wPop, wBreakpoint, 
+    wFatal, wDefine, wUndef, wCompile, wLink, wLinkSys, wPure, wPush, wPop,
-    wCheckpoint, wPassL, wPassC, wDeadCodeElim, wDeprecated, wFloatChecks,
+    wBreakpoint, wCheckpoint, wPassL, wPassC, wDeadCodeElim, wDeprecated,
-    wInfChecks, wNanChecks, wPragma, wEmit, wUnroll, wLinearScanEnd}
+    wFloatChecks, wInfChecks, wNanChecks, wPragma, wEmit, wUnroll,
+    wLinearScanEnd}
   lambdaPragmas* = {FirstCallConv..LastCallConv, wImportc, wExportc, wNodecl, 
     wNosideEffect, wSideEffect, wNoreturn, wDynLib, wHeader, 
     wDeprecated, wExtern, wThread, wImportcpp, wImportobjc, wNoStackFrame}
@@ -48,7 +49,7 @@ const
     wImportcpp, wImportobjc, wError}
   varPragmas* = {wImportc, wExportc, wVolatile, wRegister, wThreadVar, wNodecl, 
     wMagic, wHeader, wDeprecated, wCompilerProc, wDynLib, wExtern,
-    wImportcpp, wImportobjc, wError}
+    wImportcpp, wImportobjc, wError, wNoInit}
   constPragmas* = {wImportc, wExportc, wHeader, wDeprecated, wMagic, wNodecl,
     wExtern, wImportcpp, wImportobjc, wError}
   procTypePragmas* = {FirstCallConv..LastCallConv, wVarargs, wNosideEffect,
@@ -556,6 +557,9 @@ proc pragma(c: PContext, sym: PSym, n: PNode, validPragmas: TSpecialWords) =
           of wDiscardable:
             noVal(it)
             if sym != nil: incl(sym.flags, sfDiscardable)
+          of wNoInit:
+            noVal(it)
+            if sym != nil: incl(sym.flags, sfNoInit)
           of wChecks, wObjChecks, wFieldChecks, wRangechecks, wBoundchecks, 
              wOverflowchecks, wNilchecks, wAssertions, wWarnings, wHints, 
              wLinedir, wStacktrace, wLinetrace, wOptimization, wByRef,

compiler/wordrecg.nim

@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ type
     wHints, wOptimization, wSpeed, wSize, wNone, 
     wDeadCodeElim, wSafecode, 
     wPragma,
-    wCompileTime,
+    wCompileTime, wNoInit,
     wPassc, wPassl, wBorrow, wDiscardable,
     wFieldChecks, 
     wCheckPoint, wSubsChar, 
@@ -96,7 +96,7 @@ const
     "optimization", "speed", "size", "none", 
     "deadcodeelim", "safecode", 
     "pragma",
-    "compiletime", 
+    "compiletime", "noinit",
     "passc", "passl", "borrow", "discardable", "fieldchecks",
     "checkpoint",
     "subschar", "acyclic", "shallow", "unroll", "linearscanend",

doc/manual.txt

@@ -1526,6 +1526,14 @@ T = enum                        cast[T](0); this may be an invalid value
 ============================    ==============================================
 
 
+The implicit initialization can be avoided for optimization reasons with the
+`noinit`:idx: pragma: 
+
+.. code-block:: nimrod
+  var
+    a {.noInit.}: array [0..1023, char] 
+
+
 Const section
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
@@ -1781,6 +1789,7 @@ sugar for:
   result = expr
   return result
 
+
 ``return`` without an expression is a short notation for ``return result`` if
 the proc has a return type. The `result`:idx: variable is always the return
 value of the procedure. It is automatically declared by the compiler. As all

web/news.txt

@@ -65,6 +65,8 @@ Language Additions
   a compile-time error.
 - There is a new ``discardable`` pragma that can be used to mark a routine 
   so that its result can be discarded implicitely.
+- Added a new ``noinit`` pragma to prevent automatic initialization to zero
+  of variables.
 - Constants can now have the type ``seq``.
 - There is a new user-definable syntactic construct ``a{i, ...}``
   that has no semantics yet for built-in types and so can be overloaded to your