[cxx-abi-dev] Re: C++ ABI: Reuse of tail padding

[Gabriel Dos Reis]

Nathan Sidwell <nathan at codesourcery.com> writes:

[...]

| > I think I would prefer to change G++, and drop this idea from the spec,
| > even though it is an optimization.
| Although using tail padding is neat, how many bytes would it
| save in real programs? You only get it with structs of the form
| 	int i;
| 	char c;
| or (on some non-i86 machines)
| 	double d;
| 	int i;

Right. However, I'm not sure if is about neat features (seriously). 
People seeking for efficient space use are advised to declare
their data-members in (preferably decreasing) monotonic order of
alignment requirements.  For those people, I think the principle of
least surprise should be honored if possible. 

-- Gaby