Bug 3999 and 4261

[Nick Sabalausky]

"Jonathan M Davis" <jmdavisprog at gmail.com> wrote in message 
news:mailman.38.1283370572.858.digitalmars-d at puremagic.com...
>
> You can think of it a bit like static. Static is used for different things 
> in
> different contexts (even though most contexts are quite similar - IIRC, 
> there's a
> way to define static in C++ which fits all of its uses in C++, though D 
> adds some
> more that don't fit that definitition), but it doesn't really cause any 
> confusion.
> enum is the same way. Sure, from the standpoint of language purity, 
> manifest
> constants shouldn't be declared using enum, but the reality of the matter 
> is
> that it works just fine.
>

Static is a little bit better in that the uses of it at least have some 
connection to the dictionary meaning of "static", even if perhaps a little 
distant. But there's just no way to stretch the dictionary meaning of 
"enumeration" to include manifest constants. Like everyone else, I can at 
least live with it, but I look forward to the day the linker issue is fixed 
so we can finally mutilate/destroy/kill it, dead, dead, dead with extreme 
prejudice in favor of immutable. It's a stain - doesn't really cause a 
problem, but boy is it ever UGLY.