In reply to dave_59:
I think I am now ok with your original code proposal, thanks! I definitely see your proposal as a good programming practice.
As you stated, the const variable that is not a class member can only be initialized as part of its declaration, but I am a little annoyed because the same explanation cannot be found from IEEE Std 1800-2012. I can only find the const class member initialization explanation, but nothing about outside class const variable initialization. Could you point me a section within IEEE Std 1800-2012 which explains that? Or does it exist at all? Maybe it is kind of implicit rule.
-Vaino