Re: Enumeration literals and their associated functions

[Niklas Holsti <nobody@nowhere.fi>]

Maciej Sobczak wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> <http://www.adaic.org/standards/95aarm/html/AA-3-5-1.html>, paragraph 6 
> states that for each enumeration literal specification there is an 
> appropriate parameterless function declated.
> 
>    type Color is (RED, GREEN, BLUE);
> 
> ...
> If instead "RED" above is considered to be a literal, then what's the 
> sense of having an associated function at all?

I believe that the LRM defines enumeration literals as functions 
because this automatically defines their overloading. That is, you 
can have another enumeration type that also has the literal RED (a 
synonym), yet overloading lets the compiler resolve which RED is 
meant, by the context.

-- 
Niklas Holsti
Tidorum Ltd
niklas holsti tidorum fi
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