Date: Thu, 17 Oct 1996 11:59:30 -0600 (MDT) From: Nate Williams <nate@mt.sri.com> To: "Marty Leisner" <leisner@sdsp.mc.xerox.com> Cc: phk@freebsd.org, hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: enum considered bad ? Message-ID: <199610171759.LAA19045@rocky.mt.sri.com> In-Reply-To: <9610171708.AA28362@gnu.sdsp.mc.xerox.com> References: <2022.845535270@critter.tfs.com> <9610171708.AA28362@gnu.sdsp.mc.xerox.com>
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Marty Leisner writes:
> >
> > I've noticed that "enum" is hardly ever used in C programs, is this
> > because people consider it a bad idea or because they havn't really
> > got the swing of it ?
>
> You mean instead of #define...?
>
> Its an excellent idea...I saw it in a Doug McIlroy Computing Systems
> article, and he explained it to me.
>
> I never saw it documented any (why to use enum's for constants).
In C++ it's really the only way to have 'static' constants that don't
have to be initialized inside of class definitions, which you can do
also do comparison's against and have type-checking.
Nate
---------- cut here ------------
/* Quick and dirty. Forgive the obnoxious mix of C/C++ libraries */
#include <stdio.h>
#include <iostream.h>
class foo {
public:
foo(const char *);
void print(void);
private:
enum { MIN_LEN = 0, MAX_LEN = 500 };
char buff[MAX_LEN];
};
foo::foo(const char *str)
{
// Null terminate
buff[0] = '\0';
if ( ::strlen(str) <= MAX_LEN )
::strcpy(buff, str);
return;
}
void
foo::print(void)
{
cout << buff << "\n";
}
int
main()
{
foo A("Hello World");
A.print();
return 1;
}
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