Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!cmcl2!brl-adm!brl-smoke!gwyn
From: gwyn@brl-smoke.ARPA (Doug Gwyn )
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: While talking about useful additions, how about this one??
Message-ID: <7178@brl-smoke.ARPA>
Date: 25 Jan 88 17:22:29 GMT
References: <253@vsi1.UUCP> <127@ghostwheel.UUCP> <2376@haddock.ISC.COM>
Reply-To: gwyn@brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn (VLD/VMB) <gwyn>)
Organization: Ballistic Research Lab (BRL), APG, MD.
Lines: 11

In article <2376@haddock.ISC.COM> karl@haddock.ima.isc.com (Karl Heuer) writes:
>Thus, struct{char} and struct{int} may have different alignment constraints.

I used to think that, too, but a few weeks ago after discussion with
Dennis Ritchie I realized that all struct pointers have to "smell" the
same, which implies that they might as well have the same alignment.
The argument had to do with use of an incomplete struct type declaration
in order to accomplish mutual reference in two struct declarations.

The utility of maintaining a distinction between different struct types
is simply for compile-time type checking, which is VERY helpful.