std.random.uniform for enums

[Frustrated]

On Thursday, 13 February 2014 at 02:14:02 UTC, Jakob Ovrum wrote:
> On Thursday, 13 February 2014 at 02:02:38 UTC, Anton wrote:
>> I'm confused about how to use random.uniform to select a 
>> member of an enum.
>>
>> Say I have an enum like
>>
>>    enum Animals
>>    {
>>      cat  = 0,
>>      dog = 1,
>>      chimpanzee = 2
>>    }
>>
>> I want to select a random animal. So far I've been trying to 
>> do uniform(Animals), but every time I try to compile that, I 
>> get a "does not match any function template declaration" error.
>>
>> Am I misunderstanding how this function is meant to be used?
>
> The problem with using `uniform` for enums is that not all 
> enums are sequential without holes, which would make the 
> `uniform` implementation quite non-trivial if it were to try to 
> handle enums generically.
>
> If you know your enum is sequential and doesn't have any holes, 
> assume responsibility for that fact with a cast:
>
> ---
> enum Animals
> {
> 	cat = 0,
> 	dog = 1,
> 	chimpanzee = 2
> }
>
> void main()
> {
> 	import std.random, std.stdio;
>
> 	foreach(immutable _; 0 .. 10)
> 		writeln(cast(Animals)uniform!"[]"(Animals.min, Animals.max));
> }
> ---

Could you not simply select one at random by "name"? Even though
the values of the enum may not be sequential the keys are.