Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Enumerated types... what's the point?
Message-ID: <1990Mar22.164943.10459@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <1990Mar22.053148.10351@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu>
Date: Thu, 22 Mar 90 16:49:43 GMT

In article <1990Mar22.053148.10351@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu> dks@shumv1.ncsu.edu (D. K. Smith) writes:
>... I have not RTFM'd the C scriptures but my 
>immediate reaction is "what's the point!...I could just as easily
>used #define and accomplished the same thing.  

Enumerated types were basically a kludge.  X3J11 seriously debated leaving
them out entirely.  Arguments about not breaking existing code, etc, led
to them being left in, but as a flavor of integer rather than as real live
independent types.  That's all they ever were in C.
-- 
US space station:  8 years    |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
and still no hardware built.  | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu