[M3devel] Target.Allow_packed_byte_aligned

[Hendrik Boom]

On Mon, Sep 21, 2015 at 04:37:18PM +0000, Jay K wrote:
> Also -- if anyone has a proposal that would allow Allow_packed_byte_aligned to always be true, that would also fit my agenda. I don't care true or false, I just want it the same across all targets.
> In particular, on IA64/NT you can say stuff like:  #pragma pack(1)   struct   {   char a;   __unaligned int b;  } A;  A.b  
> and you do get a 5 byte struct and b is at offset 1.The generated code will read b with multiple reads of bytes or shorts and reassemble the 4 byte integer.
> Perhaps m3front can behave similarly?For all targets?
> But for now I'll put it back and later when I generate bootstraps I'll see if they are equal, i.e. contain no packed types.
>  - Jay

The fancy packing should remain in the language, for backward 
compatibility if nothing else.  modula 3 is, after all, a systems 
language.

But is likely no need to worry it in the bootstrap.

If the bootstrap doesn't use it, it will still work portably as a 
bootstrap, no matter how machine-dependent fancy packing happens to be.

-- hendrik