". ." <pkejjy@xxxxxxxxx> writes: > (In other words, I think the default for x86(-64) should be packed, > but I'll leave it to others to have that flame war.) The ABI can not change. Changing that now would prevent linking object files compiler by different compilers together safely, as they would use different offsets for accessing struct fields. In any case, different programs have different tradeoffs here. Some programs prefer the faster access of aligned fields, some programs prefer the reduced memory usage of packed fiels. No single default can be satisfactory for everybody, but nevertheless there must be a default. Ian
