Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!linac!att!ucbvax!"dwilliam@larry.ATL.GE.COM"@andrew.dnet.ge.com
From: "dwilliam@larry.ATL.GE.COM"@andrew.dnet.ge.com
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi
Subject: Re: Big-Little Endian
Message-ID: <9104101421.AA13552@ge-dab.GE.COM>
Date: 10 Apr 91 14:21:40 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 16

>
> person asks for the folklore behind big/little endian terms.
>
The allusion is to Swift's _Gulliver's Travels_, in which two races
of people fought wars over the question of which end of an egg should
be broken to open it.  Swift was satirizing the religious orthodoxy
of his day.  Extending this to today's computer marketplace is left
as an exercise for the reader.
 
Dan
-- 
Dan Williams, Systems & Scientific Software, consultant to:
GE Advanced Technology Labs | Internet: dwilliams@atl.ge.com
300 Route 38, Bldg. 145-1   | uucp:  ...!mcnc!ge-rtp!atl.ge.com!dwilliams
Moorestown, NJ 08057        | Voice: (609) 866-6220