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From: lamaster@nike.uucp (Hugh LaMaster)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.m68k
Subject: Re: Intel vs Motorola Byte ordering
Message-ID: <791@nike.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 4-Dec-86 12:38:01 EST
Article-I.D.: nike.791
Posted: Thu Dec  4 12:38:01 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 5-Dec-86 02:51:52 EST
References: <1509@ihlpl.UUCP> <1335@hoptoad.uucp> <138@pembina.alberta.UUCP>
Sender: usenet@nike.UUCP
Reply-To: lamaster@pioneer.UUCP (Hugh LaMaster)
Organization: NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
Lines: 42

In article <138@pembina.alberta.UUCP> bjorn@alberta.UUCP (Bjorn R. Bjornsson) writes:
>In article <1335@hoptoad.uucp>, gnu@hoptoad.uucp (John Gilmore) writes:
>> If enough people are apathetic (e.g. don't complain), I will post a
>> great piece, "On Holy Wars and a Plea for Peace", which is the best
>> description of byte ordering problems I've ever seen.  ......
>
 .....
> ....                             and leaves out some, good arguments
>for the little endian side.  I'm not unbiased either, but I certainly
>don't pretend to be.  I'll elucidate, if this discussion gets of the
>ground again.
>
>				Bjorn R. Bjornsson
>				alberta!bjorn


I, for one, would like to hear some good arguments for or against
a particular byte ordering.  It is my belief that there is no
intrinsic architectural reason for either one.  However, I am an
unapologetic big-endian for two reasons:
1)  A STANDARD is needed for the benefit of those of us who need
to move BINARY data files between machines of different types,
such as graphics and solids modeling data files;
2)  Big Endian is easier to read for English speaking people
because characters and floating point are in the same order as
in English.  (Has anyone ever wondered why we don't write 1 Million
as 000,000,1    ?)
But are there any intrinsic reasons for a particular order?  Some
people seem to think so.  What are they?




   Hugh LaMaster, m/s 233-9,   UUCP:  {seismo,hplabs}!nike!pioneer!lamaster 
   NASA Ames Research Center   ARPA:  lamaster@ames-pioneer.arpa
   Moffett Field, CA 94035     ARPA:  lamaster%pioneer@ames.arpa
   Phone:  (415)694-6117       ARPA:  lamaster@ames.arc.nasa.gov

"He understood the difference between results and excuses."

("Any opinions expressed herein are solely the responsibility of the
author and do not represent the opinions of NASA or the U.S. Government")