Irit Katriel via Python-Dev writes:
Andrei is suggesting to look at each enum value as the set of "bits set to 1" in this value, and then apply a set-thoery term to the problem. [...] Anyway, I don't know whether this kind of terminology is widely accessible.
I think the everyday meaning of "cover" is close enough to the set theory meaning that only set theorists can be confused. (Not a joke, because I'm not sure exactly what Ethan intends.) I'm not sure "exact_cover" or "complete_cover" or similar are good names, but they're as good as any I've seen so far.
Maybe you could use something like @composite. As in, every non-canonical value in the enum is the composition of canonical values.
-1 on "composite". "Compose" has other, more important meanings, and isn't very suggestive of this kind of factorization, to me at least. Steve