[Python-ideas] PEP for enum library type?

[MRAB]

On 2013-02-21 23:24, Greg Ewing wrote:
> On 22/02/13 08:18, Alex Stewart wrote:
>> In non-Python code, typically enums have always been represented under the
>> covers as ints, and therefore must be passed back and forth as numbers. The
>> fact that they have an integer value, however, is purely an implementation
>> artifact.  It comes from the fact that C and some other languages don't have
>   > a rich enough type system to properly make enums their own distinct type
>
> I don't think that's true for all languages. For example, enums in
> Pascal are definitely distinct types from integers, yet the language
> explicitly assigns them ordinal values and defines an ordering for
> them. Wirth must have thought there was a benefit in doing that.
>
[snip]

It means that sets of enums can be implemented using bitsets.