>     This was something I was going to ask about; if structures are 
 > aligned to word boundaries, then what happens when you need to 
 > interface a language which doesn't? Your example shows a potential 
 > problem if one is not aware of the compiler aligning the structures 
 > behind your back.

Obviously one must be aware of the compiler's habits, or at the very least
aware that such a situation could occur.  I was not aware of this before,
but I am now and can deal with it - if I know it is occurring.  When you
don't realise you have structure misalignment then the real fun starts. :-)

 >     I can understand the advantage of aligning structures which are 
 > used in memory; but for writing to records on disk I consider it a big 
 > no-no.

Yep.  Problems with accessing structures which are aligned in a particular
manner in memory may also occur when one or more compilers/languages are
involved.  I guess the moral here is "know your compiler".

andrew

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