[Info-vax] nice for VMS

[Bob Koehler]

In article <49e521a4$0$90271$14726298 at news.sunsite.dk>, =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Arne_Vajh=F8j?= <arne at vajhoej.dk> writes:
> 
> Call it "lying to the compiler" or "utilizing pointers
> manipulation to the max".

   A properly operating compiler will make no assumptions about
   the content of a pointer.  If the compiler can establish by code
   analysis that the pointer is never set to anything unaligned then
   it's OK to generate code that assumes alignment.  If the pointer
   is an argument or global the compiler should make no assumptions.

   But if the compiler does make incorrect assumptions and the resulting
   code crashes you may not be able to get the vendor to fix it.