On Fri, Jun 4, 2010 at 10:33 AM, Stewart, Robert <Robert.Stewart@sig.com> wrote:
Jonathan Franklin wrote:
To whit, GCC supports struct packing via the __packed__ attribute: http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Type-Attributes.html
That's for a UDT, not for an int.
Of course. The point is that packing has a well-known meaning. If you rethink your concept of packing in terms of bits in an int representation, you can reword the verbiage in the link like so: This attribute, attached to an *integral type* definition, specifies that each *bit* of the *integral type* is placed to minimize the memory required.
I'm not a linguist, but I use pack as a noun all the time. Whenever I feel like rock climbing, I grab my gear pack and head for the crag.
Of course "pack" can be a noun. I didn't say otherwise (presuming that your reference to nouns versus verbs was in reference to one of my posts on that point).
Perhaps I misread. My recollection is that it was claimed the "pack" label was no good because it is a verb, not a noun. I'm sure I'm remembering this wrong, and it isn't worth looking up or revisiting. Sorry for bringing it up.
However, just as you've used it, a "pack" is a collection or holder of things. Hence, it doesn't work in this context because the type in question holds a single integer type of some number of bits/octets.
Again, an integral type is a collection of bits, which some people, other than yourself, might like to pack into a... pack. ;-) And this is purely a semantic discussion now, so I'm exiting post-haste. Jon