Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!sgi!shinobu!odin!sgihub!dragon!nubbins.wpd.sgi.com!martyi From: martyi@nubbins.wpd.sgi.com (Marty Itzkowitz) Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi Subject: Re: where does BIG/LITTLE endian come from??? Message-ID: <1991Apr10.145237.29206@dragon.wpd.sgi.com> Date: 10 Apr 91 14:52:37 GMT References: <11062.on.Wed,.10.Apr.91.07:26:45.EDT.@sct60a.sunyct.edu> Sender: news@dragon.wpd.sgi.com (CNews Account) Reply-To: martyi@sgi.com Organization: Silicon Graphics, System Software Division Lines: 8 The reference is literary, and refers to two groups who quarrel endlessly over whether to eat soft-boiled eggs from the little end or the big end of the egg. It is from Swift's Gulliver's Travels, and should be read a satire on meaningless arbitrary differences. Of course, while arbitrary in the theological sense, to implementors it is quite important. Marty Itzkowitz