Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!decwrl!decvax!purdue!umd5!trantor.umd.edu!chris
From: chris@trantor.umd.edu (Chris Torek)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: data alignment
Message-ID: <2320@umd5.umd.edu>
Date: 19 Feb 88 00:02:12 GMT
References: <2635@calmasd.GE.COM> <28200092@ccvaxa> <496@ecrcvax.UUCP> <2309@umd5.umd.edu> <661@cresswell.quintus.UUCP>
Sender: ris@umd5.umd.edu
Reply-To: chris@trantor.umd.edu (Chris Torek)
Organization: University of Maryland, College Park
Lines: 27

>In article <2309@umd5.umd.edu> I said
>>an unordered aggregate type: a `bag'.

In article <661@cresswell.quintus.UUCP> ok@quintus.UUCP (Richard
A. O'Keefe) writes:
>Please don't do that.  "bag" is a very common name for the "multiset"
>data type.  (That is, a homogeneous collection like a set, except that
>items can be present more than once.)

[which Dave Pardo also mentioned]

Yes; and indeed, that is what Craig's `bags' were.  I was largely kidding
(as I intended to imply with the remark about a `blender' datatype).

>There is a trivial solution, and a non-trivial solution.

[deleted; both involve ordering structures from largest-to-smallest
types]

It seems not unreasonable, though, to have a language keyword to
tell the compiler to do this for you.  (Please do not suggest
this seriously to the X3J11 committee.  The dpANS describes a
language sufficiently different from C already.)
-- 
In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Computer Science, +1 301 454 7163
(hiding out on trantor.umd.edu until mimsy is reassembled in its new home)
Domain: chris@mimsy.umd.edu		Path: not easily reachable