> In both cases, this _particular_ example wouldn't normally cause
> problems on either the Alpha or the ARM (even with a non-hacked
> compiler).

good.  that's what i thought.

> However, knowing a bit about the wonderful proliferation of wacky CPU
> architectures, I've no doubt that there's a system somewhere that it'd
> break.  8-)

i don't think cpu architectures that break C portability will make much of
an impression in the marketplace in the next dozen years.

> There's no reason to do it in 'committed' code, so why do it?

sure there is.  opaqueness has lasting value -- i disagree that this is
just a lint question.  "struct in_addr" is still a struct and it keeps
people from comparing addresses as if they were integers.  that opacity
has kept a huge amount of bad code from being written over the years.