[pacman-dev] [patch] remove use of unsigned char for enums, convert #define constants to enums

[Aaron Griffin]

On 1/23/07, Johannes Weiner <hannes at saeurebad.de> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> On Fri, Jan 19, 2007 at 09:54:16PM -0500, Dan McGee wrote:
> > This mainly deals with code clarity- removing currently unneeded
> > optimizations in order to make the code much more readable and
> > type-checkable. Every enum in the library now has it's own type that
> > should be used instead of the generic 'unsigned char'. In addition,
> > several #define statements dealing with constants were converted to
> > enums.
>
> Uh.. what do you need all this types for...?
>
> There are currently 30 custom types over the lib (IIGC). Does this
> really bring more clarity?
>
> Do you need to typecheck an error-level?

Actually, yes.  Using enums instead of defined constants and arbitrary
types brings alot of clarity.  Take this instance:

int foo(unsigned int foo_type);

What are the bounds for foo_type? Where do you find the documentation
for it?  Is it arbitrary?  Why is it and int? Why is it unsigned?

int foo(enum foo_type_t type)

This way you know it is an enum and you know that the values must
belong to that enum, and thus how/where to find the possible bounds of
the call.

Which looks clearer here?
foo(20); //20 is purple
foo(footype_purple);