[boost] Re: How To Declare Enumerators (was: IOStreams formal reviewstart)

From: Matthias Schabel (boost_at_[hidden])
Date: 2004-09-11 16:43:07

Why give an explicit integer label to any of the values (except the  
starting value)?  It seems to me that the point of an enum declaration  
is to guarantee unique values for each tag, but relying on having any  
specific value correspond to a given tag is dangerous.  I would write  
it like this :

enum
{
        f_open = 0,
        f_input_closed,
        f_output_closed,
        f_output_buffered
};

This seems to solve the insertion problem transparently, whether at the  
end or in the middle...

Matthias

>>> This is a pain to read and maintain.  You should write them like
>>> this:
>>>
>>> enum
>>> {
>>>    f_open            = 1<<0,
>>>    f_input_closed    = 1<<1,
>>>    f_output_closed   = 1<<2,
>>>    f_output_buffered = 1<<3
>>> };
>>>
>> I stole this idiom from John Maddock: http://tinyurl.com/4no5s. It's  
>> supposed to
>> make insertion in the middle easier. I think it's the vector vs. list  
>> tradeoff.

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---------------------------
Matthias Schabel, Ph.D.                           	
Utah Center for Advanced Imaging Research
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