Hi all, Markus: apologies for not including the full URL. The file is benum_v1.zip at http://www.boostpro.com/vault/ Full URL is hhttp://www.boostpro.com/vault/index.php?action=downloadfile&filename=benum_v1.zip&directory=&PHPSESSID=b088ed5a443221683e910543098c9107 - note Google Chrome mistakes it for a query, but the vault CGI doesn't seem to cope with %3D/%26 encoding of = and &. Thorsten / Marcus: roughly comparing to smart enum proposal: - BENUM _automates_ conversions based on stringified source code, which (postulating an extra macro "BENUM" hard-coding your favourite selection of meta-data container and optional features) allows BENUM(X, A = 1, B, C = 22, D = B|N); to approximate enum X { A = 1, B, C = 22, D = B|N }; and needs no further code to be streamable etc (preprocessor macros allow run-time cross-referencing of stringified source code with array of actual values) - smart enums requires user-maintained "meta-data" - from the smart enum docs: bool init = (::EnumIO<Foo>::the() (Bar, "bar") (Baz, "baz")), true; - BENUM supports optional mark-up mixed in with the enumerations to capture use of bit masking, guiding conversion to/from pipe-separated identifiers - BENUM supports many optional "features" including bitwise operations, incrementing and arithmetic operations, while smart-enums supports arithmetic and increment - both provide iteration over enumerations - smart enums supports automated range checking, with handling via throw, wrap, modulo The benum.test.cpp file shows a very complex example usage highlighting the features. Sorry for not working in to it gently. Note that all that extra mark-up etc. is optional and not needed by simple enumerations without bit masking/ORing etc.. Regards, Tony