When I call the tone function on a Uno, why do I not have to declare the pinmode in setup?

Question

When I call the tone function on a Uno, why do I not have to declare the pinmode in setup? Like so:

// Simplest tone
void setup() {
}

void loop() {
    tone (8,500); //on pin 8 output 500 Hz
}

Answer 1

Because the tone(hertz) code initializes the pinmode, along with the timer/counter control registers to produce the appropriate frequency.

void tone(uint8_t _pin, unsigned int frequency, unsigned long duration)
{
  uint8_t prescalarbits = 0b001;
  long toggle_count = 0;
  uint32_t ocr = 0;
  int8_t _timer;

  _timer = toneBegin(_pin);

  if (_timer >= 0)
  {
    // Set the pinMode as OUTPUT
    pinMode(_pin, OUTPUT);
   ... 

See Tone.cpp - line 255 for the source.