Premature Optimization is Fun Sometimes
Summary
The post walks through memory layout optimizations for a simple ICMP ping-tracking structure, using unions and bitfields to trim memory footprint. It highlights how padding and alignment can negate naive optimizations and demonstrates a final structure that reduces size from 12 KiB to 4 KiB, though the author concludes the optimization was unnecessary in practice. It also adds addenda exploring the impact of field order and compiler behavior on access efficiency.