NOTE: This library now is part of the MiLi Minimalistic Library. Download it from there.

OBSOLETE

A very simple, 0-overhead, and yet type-safe 1-file library for doing bitwise operations between masks represented by enums.

For example, given:

enum ClearBufferMask
{
    GL_DEPTH_BUFFER_BIT    = 0x00000100,
    GL_ACCUM_BUFFER_BIT    = 0x00000200,
    GL_STENCIL_BUFFER_BIT  = 0x00000400,
    GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT    = 0x00004000,
};

void glClear(unsigned int mask);

the problem is that any bitwise operation between ClearBufferMask elements will loose the type, and will be casted to int. Thus, type-checking will be disabled, and glClear() can be called with any integer value.

bitwise_enum class wrapper just provides all the bitwise operations over a given enum (as a template parameter), always keeping the type. Given that, glClear can now be declared as:

void glClear( bitwise_enum<ClearBufferMask> mask );`

int main()
{
   glClear( GL_DEPTH_BUFFER_BIT | GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT );   // OK
   glClear( 0x00004000 | 0x00000100); // ERROR!
}

Just include bitwise_enums.hpp and you are ready to use it.

Got compiler errors? Click here.

Daniel Gutson.