From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me
X-Spam-Level: 
X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,FREEMAIL_FROM
	autolearn=unavailable autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4
X-Received: by 2002:a02:b68f:: with SMTP id
 i15mr30009314jam.107.1559948689206;
        Fri, 07 Jun 2019 16:04:49 -0700 (PDT)
X-Received: by 2002:aca:3256:: with SMTP id y83mr5490885oiy.110.1559948688944;
 Fri, 07 Jun 2019 16:04:48 -0700 (PDT)
Path: 
 eternal-september.org!reader01.eternal-september.org!feeder.eternal-september.org!weretis.net!feeder6.news.weretis.net!feeder.usenetexpress.com!feeder-in1.iad1.usenetexpress.com!border1.nntp.dca1.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!g15no295671itd.0!news-out.google.com!l135ni348itc.0!nntp.google.com!s188no301696itb.0!postnews.google.com!glegroupsg2000goo.googlegroups.com!not-for-mail
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Date: Fri, 7 Jun 2019 16:04:48 -0700 (PDT)
In-Reply-To: <lna7ets1al.fsf@kst-u.example.com>
Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com
Injection-Info: glegroupsg2000goo.googlegroups.com;
 posting-host=208.114.128.53;
 posting-account=MRPdDAoAAADUJmZVjnYaoafXFMadSeY1
NNTP-Posting-Host: 208.114.128.53
References: <ce1f4090-bdda-4a95-9d6e-c75bd497c3b0@googlegroups.com>
 <c59e3544-9e72-42f6-b90b-5b03859c4e64@googlegroups.com>
 <60027108-2b92-417e-8083-eef19cc1e64a@googlegroups.com>
 <bc15333c-03b2-485c-be81-2c444abace1c@googlegroups.com>
 <lna7ets1al.fsf@kst-u.example.com>
User-Agent: G2/1.0
MIME-Version: 1.0
Message-ID: <aaf35355-1908-453b-b164-e6d20fc879b6@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: C++ diaries...
From: Olivier Henley <olivier.henley@gmail.com>
Injection-Date: Fri, 07 Jun 2019 23:04:49 +0000
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
Xref: reader01.eternal-september.org comp.lang.ada:56545
Date: 2019-06-07T16:04:48-07:00
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>

On Friday, June 7, 2019 at 2:22:44 PM UTC-4, Keith Thompson wrote:
> The concept of enum in C++ is not what you wanted it to be.

> C's enum types are derived directly from C's.  In C, which does not
> support overloading of identifiers, enumeration constants are of type
> int.  For example:
> 
>     enum color { red, green, blue };
> 
> defined "enum color" as a discrete type, and "blue" as a constant
> equivalent to a literal 2.  C++ tightens this up slightly by making
> the constants be of the enum type (mostly, I think, to allow the
> constants to be used with overloaded functions), but they're still
> freely assignable to and from integer types.

> More recently, C++ added a new "enum class" feature which is closer to
> what you want enums to be -- but the older form goes back to the 1980s,
> and there are uncounted lines of code depending on it.

> Making C enums strongly typed from the beginning would have caused
> problems *in the environment in which the language was defined
> and used*.  Changing them in an incompatible way would have broken
> existing code.  

> Ada was designed with a different philosophy.

I know all this.

These facts do not absolve an absurd design and all the man hours it cost for decades. 

Life is short sir. I say we should struggle for better ways than accepting 'absurdly clashing identifiers' ... as a status quo of design.