enum safety

Hi,

Page 39 K&R2 says

'Although variables of enum types may be declared, compilers need not
check that what you store in such a variable is a valid value for the
enumeration'

gcc produces an error for the code below as I'm trying to assign a
pointer to char to the a variable of type colour. Is gcc going beyond
the call of duty? Why would the standard allow compilers to accept
such code?

#include <stdio.h>
#include <limits.h>

char* c=0;

enum colours {
Red,Blue

};


int main ()
{
enum colours purple =c ;

return 0;
}
.

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