title: Use of enums in API
body: <p>I'm designing an API in C#, and one function I need is something along the lines of:</p>
  
  <pre><code>void CreateChild(string name, ChildType type);
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Where ChildType is defined as:</p>
  
  <pre><code>public enum ChildType { Number = 0, Text = 1 };
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>It should be fairly self-explanatory, but essentially, it will create a child of the object in question, and the type of value that child contains will either be a string or a double based on the value of the enum.</p>
  
  <p>The <code>ChildType</code> enum is public, thus, I assume, would be accessible to users of the API.</p>
  
  <p>My concern is that some languages won't understand the enum in the signature and won't be able to program to this API. Is this something to be concerned about, or are my fears unfounded?</p>