structure field ordering, packing, etc

[Chris Torek]

In article <4181 at pasteur.Berkeley.Edu> iverson at cory.Berkeley.EDU
(Tim Iverson) writes:
>... when you have to interface directly with hardware or massage
>foreign binary data into local format, [you may be forced] to abandon
>the nice bit field and structure abilities of C and resort to bit masks
>and character arrays to properly address the data.

>Fortunately, some C compilers have an option to compile with "packed"
>structures.  A new "packed" keyword would be even better ....

To see an alternative to a `packed' keyword, take a look at Mesa.
Remember also that nothing helps when you must read data that was
stored in trinary. . . . :-)
-- 
In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci Dept (+1 301 454 7163)
Domain:	chris at mimsy.umd.edu	Path:	uunet!mimsy!chris