Re: LUAI_USER_ALIGNMENT_T

["Dirk Feytons" <dirk.feytons@...>]

On 7/23/07, Edwin Eyan Moragas <haaktu@gmail.com> wrote:
> hi list,
>
> i was looking at the source and i found this in luaconf.h:
>
> #define LUAI_USER_ALIGNMENT_T union { double u; void *s; long l; }
>
>
> i really don't understand the term 'alignment' as of yet.
> tried looking for some kind of explanation of this in the net
> to no avail.
>
> anybody willing to explain this? links for resources would
> also be greatly appreciated.

The wikipedia link mentioned by Jan is a good start. See also the IBM
article linked from there:
http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/library/pa-dalign/ for some
graphical illustrations that should help you understand alignment.
It's focusing a bit on PowerPC but the concepts are common to other
architectures.

--
Dirk