Comment by OskarS

Hey, even an article written by Walter, that's a fun coincidence! :)

This is slightly different than the form I've seen it, but same idea: in the version I've seen, you have a special file that's like "enums.txt" with contents like (warning, not tested):

    X(red)
    X(green)
    X(blue)

and then you write:

    typedef enum { 
        #define X(x) x
        #include "enums.txt"
        #undef X
    } color;

    const char* getColorName(color c) {
        switch (c) {
            #define X(x) case x: return #x;
            #include "enums.txt"
            #undef X
        }
    }

Same idea, just using an #include instead of listing them in a macro. Thinking about it, it's sort-of a compile time "visitor pattern".