Re: N00b questions :\

[northern snowfall <dbailey27 () ameritech net>]

> GCC sometimes allocates more memory for each variable on the stack than
> is actually requested. I have no idea exactly why and what is does --
> but I assume it is some small optimization.
FYI, compilers (are supposed to) align memory to the requirement of the
underlying architecture. Most processors will throw an alignment_error
exception if an opcode attempts to pass an unaligned address to it.
This is done simply by padding the stack so that each auto variable is
given a properly aligned memory address.
Don
http://deadchildren.org/~north_