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From: kurt@tc.fluke.COM (Kurt Guntheroth)
Newsgroups: comp.compilers
Subject: Re: Enumerated data types
Keywords: C, Ada, design
Message-ID: <1990Aug29.160256.29820@tc.fluke.COM>
Date: 29 Aug 90 16:02:56 GMT
References: <1990Aug23.134826.2865@forwiss.uni-passau.de>
Sender: compilers-sender@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us
Reply-To: kurt@tc.fluke.COM (Kurt Guntheroth)
Organization: John Fluke Mfg. Co., Inc., Everett, WA
Lines: 18
Approved: compilers@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us

Ada allows enumerated types whose member names are overloaded.  You resolve
the ambiguity by specifying the type in ambiguous situations.   The syntax
is <type_specifier>'(<expression>) in Ada (though I'm sure Ada uses
different names for the metasymbols).

    car_colors is (red, blue, brown, black);
    bike_colors is (orange, red, green, white);
	 . . .

    x := car_colors'(red);

There was a certain amount of discussion of how this ought to be done in
SIGPLAN Notices in 1981 or so, but I havn't bothered to go look them up.  As
I remember, the papers were mostly picking on Ada because it was very stylish
to pick on Ada back then.  Now it is stylish simply to ignore Ada.
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