It is not a compiler bug, it is a bug in your code. The compiler seems to be implementing the C++03 behaviour, but this has crucially changed in C++11.
These are some relevant quotes from the C++03 and C++11 standards
In C++03:
To value-initialize an object of type T means:
— if T is a class type
(clause 9) with a user-declared constructor (12.1), then the default
constructor for T is called (and the initialization is ill-formed if T
has no accessible default constructor);
— if T is a non-union class
type without a user-declared constructor, then every non-static data
member and base-class component of T is value-initialized;
(emphasis mine)
In C++11:
To value-initialize an object of type T means:
— if T is a (possibly
cv-qualified) class type (Clause 9) with a user-provided constructor
(12.1), then the default constructor for T is called (and the
initialization is ill-formed if T has no accessible default
constructor);
— if T is a (possibly cv-qualified) non-union class type
without a user-provided constructor, then the object is
zero-initialized and, if T’s implicitly-declared default constructor
is non-trivial, that constructor is called.
and
To zero-initialize an object or reference of type T means:
— if T is a
scalar type (3.9), the object is set to the value 0 (zero), taken as
an integral constant expression, converted to T;
- if T is a
(possibly cv-qualified) non-union class type, each non-static data
member and each base-class subobject is zero-initialized and padding
is initialized to zero bits;
Note: The following only applies to C++03:
Either remove A
's user-provided constructor, or change it to
A() : i() {}
When you value-initialize a B
here,
B* p = new B {};
it value-initializes its data members. Since A
has a default constructor, the value-initialization results in a call to that. But that constructor does not explicitly initialize A::i
, so it gets default-initialized, which for an int
means no initialization is performed.
If you had not provided a default constructor for A
, then the data member would get zero-initialized when an A
is value-initialized.