title: Trying to understand static constructors
body: <p>I am trying to understand need for static constructors. None of information I found answered following question I have. Why would you do this</p>
  
  <pre><code>class SimpleClass
  {
      // Static variable that must be initialized at run time.
      static readonly long baseline;
  
      // Static constructor is called at most one time, before any
      // instance constructor is invoked or member is accessed.
      static SimpleClass()
      {
          baseline = DateTime.Now.Ticks;
      }
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>as opposed to this</p>
  
  <pre><code>class SimpleClass
  {
      // Static variable that must be initialized at run time.
      static readonly long baseline = DateTime.Now.Ticks;
  
      // Static constructor is called at most one time, before any
      // instance constructor is invoked or member is accessed.
      //static SimpleClass()
      //{
  
      //}
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>?</p>
  
  <hr>
  
  <p>This is not dupe of other question, this is about static constructors which don't accept parameters.</p>