> Well if they do require more than one instruction, the rule has > no effect ("whenever possible"). If they can be done in one > instruction (as on the x86), then why not require this, why > make a special case?
We don't even guarantee consistent behavior for volatile bitfields, so I really doubt we can guarantee it for non-volatile bitfields. In particular "int32_t foo:8;" may use either an 8-bit or a 32-bit access, depending what the compiler feels like. Paul