Copyright (c) Digital Equipment Corporation 1996.  All rights reserved.

PRODUCT:  DEC PL/I for OpenVMS AXP Systems

OP/SYS:   OpenVMS AXP

SOURCE:   Digital Equipment Corporation

DOCUMENT:           PL/I for OpenVMS Systems Reference Manual

ORDER NUMBER:       QA-114AA-GZ (Hardcopy documentation set)

PUBLICATION DATE:   November 1993

SECTION OR PAGE:    Section 3.4.3 "Alignment of Bit-String Data"


DOCUMENTATION ERROR:

The reference manual does not mention the alternative of natural
alignment (the default is packed alignment).  For example section
3.4.3 "Alignment of Bit-String Data" of the reference manual states

        PL/I allocates storage for an aligned bit-string variable on
        a byte boundary and reserves an integral number of bytes
        to contain the variable.

While that is true for the default packed alignment, if natural
alignment is in effect, then the behavior is

        PL/I allocates storage for an aligned bit-string variable on
        a longword boundary and reserves an integral number of longwords
        to contain the variable.

The user manual (PL/I for OpenVMS Systems User Manual) documents
the compiler command line qualifiers that select the type of
alignment (section 2.3.2 "PLI Command Qualifiers" /ALIGN and /DATA).
However, throughout the reference manual where the type of alignment
would make a difference, the behavior for packed alignment is
described and no mention is made of the difference with natural
alignment.


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