ALF_ — Inconsistency on being constructorless

Subject: Inconsistency on being constructorless

Subclause: 10.5.3.1 Constructors

In Subclause 10.5.3.1 it says that the mapping of default constructors “means that the instantiation of a class defined using Alf textual notation is never ‘constructorless’ as defined in Subclause 8.3.12”. However, later in the same subclause it says “If a class has an explicit constructor definition, then the default constructor is no longer available, even if the defined constructor has a different name than the default constructor.” But if no default constructor is available, and there is no explicit constructor with the name of the class and no arguments, then a constructorless instantiation is possible.

If a class has one or more explicit constructors, then the intent is that instances of the class be created using one of these constructors. Therefore, constructorless instantiation should not be allowed in this case, even if there is no default constructor.