PROPOSAL: abstract enums

[Alex Miller]

Derek Foster wrote:

> I can speak
from personal experience when I say that the lack of this feature in
Java is both mysterious (since there
> seems no specific technical reason
to forbid it, and it seems unnecessarily different from how classes
work) and 
> quite frustrating and time-consuming to work around. I
mentioned some of those experiences in the overview of my 
> proposal.
Apparently Stephen has had similar experiences. 

Just wanted to throw my two cents in that I also have run into circumstances where I really needed an abstract enum and was forced to go with some very awkward delegation choices instead.  And I know Fred Simon has been advocating them for quite some time and even created a branch in kijaro for it I think.

http://tech.puredanger.com/2008/01/10/property-enum/

Alex Miller