Initialization of object static members

Question

Static members confuse me sometimes. I understand how to initialize a simple built in type such as int with something along the lines of int myClass::statVar

Answer 1

Just write a function which returns a reference to a properly randomized RandomGenerator and turn itsGenerator into a reference to a generator:

class myClass
{
public:
 // Some methods...

protected:
 // make this a reference to the real generator
 static RandomGenerator& itsGenerator;
public:
 static RandomGenerator& make_a_generator() 
 {
   RandomGenerator *g=0;
    g=new RandomGenerator();
    g->Randomize();
   return *g;
 }
}

RandomGenerator& myClass::itsGenerator=myClass::make_a_generator();