FLEXIBLE DATA STRUCTURE LAYOUT FOR DATA STRUCTURE INCLUDING BIT-FIELD DATA MEMBERS

The invention produces data structure layout in a flexible manner that enables the data structures of a computer program to be layed out in a manner that conforms to constraints imposed by a particular computer system on which the program is implemented and that enables the produced data structure layout to be used with different computer systems having different constraints. Thus, the invention is particularly useful with systems that require close control of data structure layout and that have unique requirements for that layout. Embedded real-time systems, which are often implemented on hardware which is designed and optimized for a particular application, are one example of the type of system with which the invention can advantageously be used. The invention additionally allows a user to specify various parameters that control aspects of the manner in which data structure layout is achieved and, therefore, certain characteristics of the data structure layout. The parameters can be specified to achieve a data layout that provides a desired combination of program execution speed and required memory capacity.