Feature #21041: Enum class

• Status: Open
• Assignee: -
• Target version: -

[dsisnero (Dominic Sisneros)]

Enumerations (Enums) represent a critical abstraction in modern software design, offering significant advantages in type safety, code readability, and system-wide consistency. Most contemporary programming ecosystems—including Java, C#, Python, and Kotlin—provide native enum support, recognizing their fundamental value in representing finite, well-defined sets of values.

Beyond basic type definition, enums are increasingly central to interoperability across serialization frameworks. Industry-standard specifications like OpenAPI, Protocol Buffers, and gRPC leverage enums as a canonical way to define constrained value sets, enabling robust code generation and cross-platform compatibility.

Implementing a comprehensive Enum class would:

• Standardize constant representation
• Facilitate seamless code portability
• Enable automatic code generation for documentation and client libraries
• Enhance type safety and compile-time validation
• Improve developer productivity through clear, self-documenting code structures

By adopting a robust enum implementation, we can align our development practices with contemporary software engineering principles, reducing complexity and increasing overall system reliability.

[alanwu (Alan Wu)]

Without any concrete design proposal and implementation, I'm afraid this boils down to "enums in ruby would be nice". I think successful feature proposals need more details than this.

... Am I talking to an LLM?

[dsisnero (Dominic Sisneros)]

I wrote a proposal with my own words and had an llm make it sound better. Yes, it needs concrete implementation but put it here for feedback

[ufuk (Ufuk Kayserilioglu)]

I think the main feedback is that a feature request needs to fulfill the criteria listed here: https://github.com/ruby/ruby/wiki/How-To-Request-Features

As @alanwu (Alan Wu) said, without a concrete design proposal, there is nothing to really discuss, since the devil is in the details.