loose bytes

from Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003)

loose bytes
 n.

   Commonwealth hackish term for the padding bytes or {shim}s many
   compilers insert between members of a record or structure to cope with
   alignment requirements imposed by the machine architecture.

from The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008)

loose bytes

   Commonwealth hackish term for the padding bytes or {shims}
   many compilers insert between members of a {record} or
   {structure} to cope with alignment requirements imposed by the
   machine architecture.

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