Holes in Structures

[alan at allegra.UUCP]

Stephen Uitti suggests hacking the C compiler to sort fields within a
structure so that there are no holes.  Then structure comparison (yes,
another hack to the compiler) would work correctly.

I have many gripes with C.  Still, I will take C as it is, any day of
the week, if the alternative is to have every hacker add his favorite
half-baked idea to the compiler.

If you don't like a system, you can (a) work to modify it, or (b) work
to replace it with a better system.  Anarchy is no solution.  Pascal is
a total mess because so many compiler writers have taken liberties with
the definition of the language.  Is this what you want to see happen to
C?


	Alan Driscoll
	Bell Labs, Murray Hill