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Re: size_t in a struct

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On 5/22/2011 4:08 AM, Dr Nick wrote:
> I've often thought it would be nice to be able to tell the compiler to
> "optimise this structure's order for space" or "optimise this
> structure's order for size".  It would, of course, only work in modular
> code if you never exposed the structure definition and just used opaque
> pointers.  But you'd be telling it that you never rely on the order of
> things, and so could still structure the structure in the way that makes
> the code most readable.
>
> But it's very much an "it would be nice", as I suspect the benefits are
> pretty small.

I guess a code generator could potentially accomplish something close to 
this.  I'd be interested in an algorithm which figures out the most 
size-efficient ordering of the members, if anyone has one (or some ideas 
for one).

But maybe such an opaque representation might have comparable overhead 
to serialization/deserialization, where Keith's memcpy() could be used 
and there could be zero padding?  (Along the lines of "...suspect the 
benefits are pretty small".)

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size_t in a struct Edward Rutherford <edward.p.rutherford79@REMOVETHIS.gmail.com> - 2011-05-20 18:22 +0000
  Re: size_t in a struct Shao Miller <sha0.miller@gmail.com> - 2011-05-20 14:52 -0400
    Re: size_t in a struct Edward Rutherford <edward.p.rutherford79@REMOVETHIS.gmail.com> - 2011-05-20 21:31 +0000
      Re: size_t in a struct Ian Collins <ian-news@hotmail.com> - 2011-05-21 09:51 +1200
        Re: size_t in a struct Phil Carmody <thefatphil_demunged@yahoo.co.uk> - 2011-05-24 21:34 +0300
          Re: size_t in a struct Ian Collins <ian-news@hotmail.com> - 2011-05-25 07:54 +1200
      Re: size_t in a struct "[the China Blue] Drill Baby Drill" <chine.bleu@yahoo.com> - 2011-05-20 15:06 -0700
        Re: size_t in a struct Angel <angel+news@spamcop.net> - 2011-05-20 22:51 +0000
      Re: size_t in a struct Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2011-05-20 15:39 -0700
        Re: size_t in a struct Edward Rutherford <edward.p.rutherford79@REMOVETHIS.gmail.com> - 2011-05-21 18:00 +0000
          Re: size_t in a struct Joe Pfeiffer <pfeiffer@cs.nmsu.edu> - 2011-05-21 14:12 -0600
          Re: size_t in a struct Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2011-05-21 16:31 -0700
            Re: size_t in a struct Dr Nick <3-nospam@temporary-address.org.uk> - 2011-05-22 10:08 +0100
              Re: size_t in a struct Shao Miller <sha0.miller@gmail.com> - 2011-05-22 13:24 -0500
                Re: size_t in a struct Ben Pfaff <blp@cs.stanford.edu> - 2011-05-22 10:37 -0700
                Re: size_t in a struct Uncle Steve <stevet810@gmail.com> - 2011-05-22 14:18 -0400
                Re: size_t in a struct Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2011-05-22 12:17 -0700
                Re: size_t in a struct David Thompson <dave.thompson2@verizon.net> - 2011-06-01 16:33 -0400
                Re: size_t in a struct Shao Miller <sha0.miller@gmail.com> - 2011-05-23 02:05 -0500
                Re: size_t in a struct Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2011-05-23 11:21 +0100
                Re: size_t in a struct Shao Miller <sha0.miller@gmail.com> - 2011-05-23 19:40 -0500
                Re: size_t in a struct Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2011-05-24 01:25 +0100
                Re: size_t in a struct Shao Miller <sha0.miller@gmail.com> - 2011-05-23 20:43 -0500
          Re: size_t in a struct gordonb.d6jvy@burditt.org (Gordon Burditt) - 2011-05-22 17:48 -0500
      Re: size_t in a struct Jorgen Grahn <grahn+nntp@snipabacken.se> - 2011-05-21 15:43 +0000
  Re: size_t in a struct Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2011-05-20 11:59 -0700
  Re: size_t in a struct Nobody <nobody@nowhere.com> - 2011-05-20 22:24 +0100

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