I get this question a lot ‘When do class constructors (.cctor) get run’ My answer is usually: ‘It depends’ From Partition 1 of the ECMA spec ( http://msdn.microsoft.com/netframework/programming/clr/default.aspx ) The semantics of when, and what triggers...

If you are writing a compiler that targets IL or just emitting IL, you may find this an interesting read: The JIT compiler will always try to generate code, even if the IL is bad. From the JIT’s point of view, IL code falls in 3 categories: 1) Verifiable...