Re: while trying to learn pack

[jwkrahn@xxxxxxx (John W. Krahn)]

Richard Lee wrote:
> I am begining to read bit of low level(assembly) book to just gain some 
> knoweldge on inner workings of memory.
>
> My quesiton is, if machine is 32 bit, even if it's accessing string 'A', 
> it will have to fetch 32 bit (instead of 8 bit that requires to make 
> that letter A ) ?

It depends on the CPU.  An Intel compatible CPU has instructions to 
access 8 bit values from memory but some CPUs can only access 32 bit 
aligned data.

> I know this is not a mailing list for this but i figure since it's 
> closely related to pack, i thought someone would clarify for me.

It is not really related to pack() as pack() is a high level function 
that can hide the details of the CPUs addressing problems.

> I am reading "step by step assembly language"... I am not sure i will 
> read the whole thing but i just want to get better inner working of 
> memory as my c book didn't do enough justice.


John
--
Perl isn't a toolbox, but a small machine shop where you
can special-order certain sorts of tools at low cost and
in short order.                            -- Larry Wall