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Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cbmvax!jesup
From: jesup@cbmvax.UUCP (Randell Jesup)
Newsgroups: comp.arch,comp.misc,comp.lang.misc,comp.protocols.misc
Subject: Re: "big endian" and "little endian" - first usage for computer
Keywords: dump little-endian strings
Message-ID: <5703@cbmvax.UUCP>
Date: 17 Jan 89 00:40:23 GMT
References: <170@microsoft.UUCP> <4008@hubcap.UUCP> <482@babbage.acc.virginia.edu> <5658@cbmvax.UUCP> <1433@trantor.harris-atd.com>
Reply-To: jesup@cbmvax.UUCP (Randell Jesup)
Organization: Commodore Technology, West Chester, PA
Lines: 39

In article <1433@trantor.harris-atd.com> bbadger@x102c.UUCP (Badger BA 64810) writes:
>In article <5658@cbmvax.UUCP> jesup@cbmvax.UUCP (Randell Jesup) writes:
>>2)  Hardware people like to draw diagrams with 0 at bottom-right, software
>>people, used to printers and screens that print top to bottom, left to right,
>>like to put 0 at upper-left.  It also makes dumping memory with strings easier
>>to read.

>DEC VAX DUMP prints out in a format that makes both integers and strings 
>easy to read.  Namely, it prints out each in their ``natural'' order:
>Integers in little-endian (right to left), and strings from left to right.

> 4E4D4C4B 4A494847 46454443 4241002F /.ABCDEFGHIJKLMN 000000
> 69685420 5A595857 56555453 5251504F OPQRSTUVWXYZ Thi 000010
> 74736574 20612079 6C6E6F20 73692073 s is only a test 000020
>     <----- numbers go this way <---*---> strings go this way --->
>
>People who expect the first word (000000) to appear first (at left) will be 
>suprised by this, but it's perfectly consistent with the way we write 
>our numbers and strings.

	I don't know about you (or your hardware), but I tend to write from
left to right, not right to left.  :-)  And I don't start writing in the
middle of the page, and go both left and right from there.  :-)

	Sure you can write this way, or even make things scroll up, but
most terminals/whatever are easier to deal with in a sequential, left to
right, top to bottom fashion.  It's marginally more annoying to deal with
in your way.  Also, I get a headache trying to find the word/byte/whatever
I'm looking for in a listing like that, I have to reverse my thinking.  :-)

	Personally, that's a nice kludge to get around the fact that little-
endian is "naturally" written right to left, bottom to top by most people.
However, people don't read that way, certainly not text.

	I think little-endian is a long-standing joke played by hardware
engineers of software writers.  :-)

-- 
Randell Jesup, Commodore Engineering {uunet|rutgers|allegra}!cbmvax!jesup