Orphaned Response - (nf)

[franka at tekcad.UUCP]

#R:wateng:-27500:tekcad:17800003:000:586
tekcad!franka    Sep 11 12:38:00 1983

	Only certain machines REQUIRE allignment bytes (IBMs and PDP-11's
spring immediately to mind). For example, int's and double's are alligned
in VAX C only because of efficiency reasons. The hardware will fetch non-
alligned data on certain machines (with an efficiency loss). Allignment of
operands is not part of the language design, but only part of machine con-
siderations. I would not say that the allignment of data is a reason not
to allow rearrangement of structures, but having a consistent way to know
where things are put is.
					Frank Adrian
					(tektronix!tekcad!franka)