RS>   I've never used const; I don't see much of a use for it.
RS>   I suppose it's handy as a sort of extra protection
RS>   measure when you have a runtime value you want to set
RS>   once and leave alone, but...
   Microsoft makes extensive use of constants in their Visual
   programming languages. In Visual Basic, for instance, you
   find vbRed, vbGreen, etc., for the standard RGB values of
   the basic sixteen colors used in EGA/VGA systems.
   VC++ has many constants defined for similar purposes, such
   as vk_Escape, vk_Tab, or vk_Shift. These are useful aids in
   making your code more readable when processing constant
   values. You will also see these done using the enum
   preprocessor command, which produces essentially the same
   results, as far as producing constant variables for use in
   your program is concerned. I think that the enum is more
   commonly used, since you generally want to use constant
   values for a number of related values, essentially to make
   the code more readable. The purpose of making a value a
   const is to keep your code, ( or someone else's ), from
   accidentally changing the value of a variable designed as
   a self-documenting constant value to be used only for
   comparison and assignment.

> ] And now for something completely different..................

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