> This looks like plain old enum in plain c.
It very nearly is.
> Did I miss something that makes it remarkable?
Yes. The literal 'iota' keyword. There is no equivalent to this in C.
It very nearly is.
> Did I miss something that makes it remarkable?
Yes. The literal 'iota' keyword. There is no equivalent to this in C.
Does it have some other actual function and this article is only saying how btw it can also be used to make ersatz enums?
The author is describing 'iota'. You can easily combine this technique with a custom type wrapper which provides the "full enum" if that's actually what you need. In which case this provides a level of capability and convenience above that of C.
In practice, it really is quite remarkable, when you first use it to it's fullest extent.
A contrived example might be:
const (
A rune = 'A' + iota
B
)
func main() {
fmt.Printf("Hello %c", B)
}
Oh c'mon, that's a cheap shot. Your example is odd, as it doesn't really show off anything interesting; I can indeed write it as a C enum, and I can do it with less typing:
enum {
A = 'A',
B,
};
I think my problem with it overall is that it's weird and unexpected. Even when it can be genuinely useful, it doesn't really fit in the language as a part of syntax. Then again, I feel like that's pretty common for Go.