For performance small arrays should be the same as individual members (I can see the annoying fact that initialization is a headache - this has annoyed me as well). For larger arrays (>4 members), aliasing will make a difference possibly, making the array variant slower. Any union variant is expected to be slower for aliasing reasons (we do not do field-sensitive aliasing for unions).
I wonder if the fabled "union as VIEW_CONVERT_EXPR" patch would help... Richi, do you know?
Paolo
