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From: STROBL%DBNGMD21.BITNET@wiscvm.wis (Wolfgang Strobl 49+228303223)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: How (not) to Program in C (was Re: PD C as solution to binary
Message-ID: <9057@brl-adm.ARPA>
Date: Fri, 28-Aug-87 18:02:37 EDT
Article-I.D.: brl-adm.9057
Posted: Fri Aug 28 18:02:37 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 30-Aug-87 04:05:45 EDT
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> Unions -- are NEVER necessary.  The only legal use of a union is to shrink a
> variable which can contain a number of different types of values; a struct
> will work just as well, at a (possibly large) space penalty.  Illegal uses,

You contradict yourself here - or did I miss the irony?

On page 138 of K&R they say:
  "A union is a variable which may hold (at different times)
  objects of different types and sizes, with the compiler keeping
  track of size and alignment requirements. Unions provide a way to
  manipulate different kinds of data in a single area of storage,
  without embedding any machine-dependent information in the program."
There is nothing more to say, I think.

Wolfgang Strobl, STROBL@DBNGMD21.BITNET