Xref: utzoo comp.arch:7673 comp.misc:4522 comp.lang.misc:2392 comp.protocols.misc:424
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From: ewhac@well.UUCP (Leo L. Schwab)
Newsgroups: comp.arch,comp.misc,comp.lang.misc,comp.protocols.misc
Subject: Re: "big endian" and "little endian" - first usage for computers
Summary: What was the verdict?
Message-ID: <10147@well.UUCP>
Date: 28 Dec 88 09:21:23 GMT
References: <2766@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Reply-To: ewhac@well.UUCP (Leo 'Bols Ewhac' Schwab)
Followup-To: comp.misc
Organization: ACME, Makers of the Illudium Pu-36 Explosive Space Modulator
Lines: 33
Quote: "Now just look.  They're burning the porta-potties..."  -- Opus

[ Your fly is open. ]

	Sometime back, I vaguely recall a rather heated discussion on which
arrangement was better: big-endian or little-endian.  What was the outcome
of this discussion?  Did anyone "win"?

	As I see it, there are advantages to both approaches.  Since I find
the terms big-endian and little-endian as being terribly nondescriptive of
what they represent (can anyone supply a mnemonic?), I'll use unambiguous
terms.

	Least-significant-byte first has the advantage of being able to
specify the low order byte or word of a longword in memory by specifying the
same address for all three.  I.e. if you had the value 0xAABBCCDD stored at
location <foo>, then you'd specify <foo> to get at the low order byte
(0xDD), word (0xCCDD), and full longword.  No funny pointer arithmetic is
needed.

	Most-significant-byte first lets you read a hex dump more easily.
If you're reading a hex dump as individual bytes, you don't have to mentally
swap bytes around to read addresses and such; they will appear in an order
such that you can read them off directly.

	Both representations are useful.  Are there any other respective
advantages I've left out?

	Flames to /dev/null, or my mailbox, please...

_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
Leo L. Schwab -- The Guy in The Cape	INET: well!ewhac@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU
 \_ -_		Recumbent Bikes:	UUCP: pacbell > !{well,unicom}!ewhac
O----^o	      The Only Way To Fly.	      hplabs / (pronounced "AE-wack")
"Work FOR?  I don't work FOR anybody!  I'm just having fun."  -- The Doctor