Re: Contiguous file fields not so in program storage (was: Pointe r based arrays)

[Hans Boldt <boldt@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Fisher, Don wrote:
> Sounds reasonable.
>
> So how much space am I wasting by forcing the fields to be contiguous?  How
> much impact does this have on performance?
Actually, the system really isn't that smart in laying out the
fields.  Generally, it appears that fields are laid out in
alphabetical order.  That is, in the order that the compiler
declares them in the W-Code.

But as a rule, (as already stated) don't count on any specific
ordering, because there seems to be some significant exceptions to
the alphabetical ordering, not to mention alignment considerations.
 In other words, any slight change can throw any expected
arrangement out of whack.

If you absolutely need two fields to be contiguous in storage, then
declare them as subfields.

How much space is being wasted?  Taking alignment considerations
into account, the overhead on average is probably just a couple of
bytes per standalone field or data structure.

Cheers!  Hans