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From: msb@sq.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: enum - enum ?
Message-ID: <1987Jun9.155307.9026@sq.uucp>
Date: Tue, 9-Jun-87 15:53:07 EDT
Article-I.D.: sq.1987Jun9.155307.9026
Posted: Tue Jun  9 15:53:07 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 13-Jun-87 01:18:31 EDT
References: <139@starfire.UUCP> <516@haddock.UUCP>
Reply-To: msb@sq.UUCP (Mark Brader)
Organization: SoftQuad Inc., Toronto
Lines: 18
Checksum: 54293
Summary: Loosely typed enums have their uses

Karl Heuer (karl@haddock.ISC.COM.UUCP), replying to another article, writes:
> [The current draft standard] says that enums are just ints.

More precisely, their values promote to int, the same way that chars do.

> >If enums are too strongly typed (what is this, Pascal?) people will
> >go back to lists of #defines.
> 
> But if enums are too weakly typed, what's their advantage over ints?

Perhaps Karl hasn't ever had to maintain a program that uses a "list of
#defines" over 90 elements long, with the #define for the length of the
list in a different place from the list itself.  *I* have.  If the original
coder hadn't been defensive and made the length #define a bit longer
than the actual list then was, things could have gotten verrrrry awkward...

Mark Brader, SoftQuad Inc., Toronto, utzoo!sq!msb
#define	MSB(type)	(~(((unsigned type)-1)>>1))