--- mcop/buffer.cc.orig	2004-03-24 14:51:23.586055192 +0100
+++ mcop/buffer.cc	2004-03-24 14:56:14.054897216 +0100
@@ -87,9 +87,8 @@
 void Buffer::writeFloat(float f) {
 	// FIXME: on some machines this may fail badly (there is explicit
 	// float marshalling and demarshalling code in mico/orb/util.cc)
-
-	long *f_as_long = (long *)&f;
-	writeLong(*f_as_long);
+	union { float f; long l; } u = {f};
+	writeLong(u.l);
 }
 
 void Buffer::writeFloatSeq(const std::vector<float>& seq) {
@@ -252,9 +251,10 @@
 float Buffer::readFloat()
 {
 	// FIXME: see writeFloat()
-	long f_as_long = readLong();
+	union {float f; long l; } u;
+	u.l = readLong();
 
-	if(!_readError) return *(float *)&f_as_long;
+	if(!_readError) return u.f;
 	return 0.0;
 }