Manifest constants using 'manifest' keyword?

[Ary Borenszweig]

Matti Niemenmaa wrote:
> Jérôme M. Berger wrote:
>> Matti Niemenmaa wrote:
>>> Derek Parnell wrote:
>>>> Until one gets to know what it means, "manifest" looks like a noun
>>>> rather than an adjective. I can just see newbies saying things like ...
>>>> "what is a 'manifest'" when confronted with stuff like ...
>>>>
>>>> manifest 
>>>> {
>>>>    int Foo;
>>>>    long Bar;
>>>> }
>>> Alright, I'll bite. What /is/ manifest meant to mean here?
>> 	I'd bet for a compilation error ;)
> 
> That wasn't my point. I get the semantics, I want to understand what the word
> itself means.
> 
> "const" -> a constant, i.e. something you can't write to. Fine, though it's not
> necessarily "constant" per se.
> "manifest" -> a manifest constant. What's a manifest constant? A compile-time
> constant. Why isn't it called "compiletime" then? What's with the word "manifest"?
> 

I don't like the keyword "manifest" for that purpose either. My native 
language is spanish, and as a programmer for about ten years, I hear 
about the expression "manifest constant" for the first time in this 
newsgroup. In fact, "manifest" by itself seems to mean a whole different 
concept ( 
http://www.google.com.ar/search?hl=es&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&hs=kt7&pwst=1&defl=en&q=define:manifest&sa=X&oi=glossary_definition&ct=title 
), while "manifest constant" does have the intended meaning. So at least 
for me, seeing "manifest" grouping a bunch of declarations seems pretty 
weird, unless it were "manifest const". :)