Scott Schurr wrote:

Reece Dunn wrote:

...

Have you tried an approach that does not use enums. You can either use a maximum-size integer:

Let me give you a little background. One of my goals for this template is for it to take no space. I've been writing C++ code for embedded systems. It's important to me that the conversion from binary to hex (or whatever) happen entirely at compile time, leaving no trace in the object file.

The advantage of enums is that they are guaranteed to occupy no space. If I start using integers, even static const integers, the compiler has the choice of leaving some number of those in the object code. I'm trying to avoid that.

At any rate, that's my justification for using enums instead of the largest integer for my calculations. I hope now I'll learn why integers are okay, since there are template metaprogramming experts listening.

Any C++ compiler worthy of the name won't allocate it unless you require it to have an address (the obvious way is to &foo :-), in which case you cannot put it inline with the class anyway (at least, according to the Standard). The whole point of allowing 'static const int foo = ...' was to have an explicit replacement for the 'enum hack'. Note that Stroustrop uses the enum hack, according to TC++PL3E (well, my memory of it, at least).