// This code generates a NullPointerException. Using JRE 1.5.0.

public int test[]={1,2,3,4};

class TestClass
{
TestClass()
{
evaluate();
}
void evaluate()
{
if (test!=null) println("zero");
}
}

class TestClass2 extends TestClass
{
TestClass2()
{
if (test!=null) println("one");
}
void evaluate()
{
if (test!=null) println("two");
}
}

void setup()
{
// TestClass c=new TestClass(); // This works fine
TestClass2 c=new TestClass2(); // This crashes
}

not a bug, that's just how java works.

this is a sort of textbook case on why you don't want to initialize global
variables that way, because there's no way of ensuring when they're going
to be available.