Re: Ada 95 Numerics questions for the experts

[bobduff@world.std.com (Robert A Duff)]

In article <mheaney-ya023680000809972030110001@news.ni.net>,
Matthew Heaney <mheaney@ni.net> wrote:
>So, Bob Duff, writer of the RM, answer yes or no: is pragma Pack required
>in the example above, in order to guarantee that the component size really
>is 3?

First define what you mean by "the component size really is 3", and then
I'll answer the question.  ;-)

(I'm not sure how I got promoted from RM co-author to RM author.)

By the way, note that the PDP-10 had hardware support for the 10 3-bit
components per 33-bit word, with a 2-bit gap at the end of each word,
and it would make no sense to do tighter packing on that machine.
(Well, it was actually a 36-bit word, but you know what I mean --
something like 5 7-bit components per 36-bit word, with a 1-bit gap,
which was the only sensible representation of Ada 83's String type.
Note that String has a pragma Pack.)

- Bob