struct.pack behavior

[Steven Clark]

On Wed, Jun 25, 2008 at 7:03 PM, John Machin <sjmachin at lexicon.net> wrote:
> On Jun 26, 9:00 am, "Steven Clark" <steven.p.cl... at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Can anyone explain to me why
>> struct.pack('HB',1,2) gives 3 bytes, whereas struct.pack('BH',1,2)
>> gives 4 bytes?
>>
> Alignment -- read the manual.
> --
> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
>

If "the manual" is the help files for the struct module, I've read it
several times over. I understand endianness; I don't understand
alignment. Could anyone give a less cryptic / terse answer?