Rainer Deyke wrote:
On 8/31/2010 19:46, bearophile wrote:
But you can use const for constants that are known at run-time only.
While you can't use enum for constant known at run-time.
In C++, const is used for both run-time and compile-time constants. In
practice, this works out fine. It its value can only be known at
run-time, it's a run-time constant. If its value is used at
compile-time, it's a compile-time constant. If both of these apply,
it's an error. If neither applies, nobody cares if it's a compile-time
or run-time constant.
(The actual rules in C++ are a bit more complex, less intuitive, and
less useful than that, which is presumably why Walter chose not to copy
the C++ in this case. Still, overloading 'const' for both compile-time
and run-time constants is viable, and more intuitive than the current
situation with 'enum'.)
The enum situation exists ONLY because of linker limitations. It seems
most people still don't understand that.
