PhobosWatch: manifest => enum

[Bruce Adams]

On Sat, 29 Dec 2007 12:34:15 -0000, Bruce Adams  
<tortoise_74 at yeah.who.co.uk> wrote:

> On Sat, 29 Dec 2007 08:36:07 -0000, Janice Caron  
> <caron800 at googlemail.com> wrote:
>
>> On 12/29/07, Don Clugston <dac at nospam.com.au> wrote:
>>> Does this compile?
>>>
>>> enum : cfloat { A=2, B, C }
>>
>> Even more interestingly, what about
>>
>>     enum : ifloat { a = 2i, b };
>>
>> If b has to equal (a+1), then there is no way it can be the same type  
>> as a.
>
> I think Doug's arguments are the must compelling yet.

Obviously I meant Don's arguments. Oops.
Which by the way is exactly the "enum hack" we were sometimes forced to  
use in C++ before it was sanitised prior to the ISO standard.

On 12/29/07, Don Clugston <dac at nospam.com.au> wrote:

"The primary function of enum is to create a TYPE based on a GROUP of  
related INTEGRAL constants. You can abuse the facility to declare integral  
constants, but that's a secondary feature at best. The problem is that  
using enum for abtritrary types is a very poor match for the primary  
feature of enums.

We don't want to create a type; we don't want a grouping; and the values  
are not integral."