Xref: utzoo comp.arch:8032 comp.misc:4824 comp.lang.misc:2628 comp.protocols.misc:477
Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!tekbspa!optilink!cramer
From: cramer@optilink.UUCP (Clayton Cramer)
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: <865@optilink.UUCP>
Date: 26 Jan 89 18:42:28 GMT
References: <170@microsoft.UUCP. <4008@hubcap.UUCP. <482@babbage.acc.virginia.edu. <1371@X.UUCP.
Organization: Optilink Corporation, Petaluma, CA
Lines: 26

In article <1371@X.UUCP., john@frog.UUCP (John Woods) writes:
. In article <7193@csli.STANFORD.EDU., jkl@csli.STANFORD.EDU (John Kallen) writes:
. . In article <1102@l.cc.purdue.edu. cik@l.cc.purdue.edu (Herman Rubin) writes:
. . .There does not seem to be any support from "natural" languages for the
. . .little-endian approach.
. . What about Danish:     fem og halvfirsindtyve (75 (my Danish is rusty))
. . Or norwegian:	       en og femti (51). This fooled me once into believing
. . 		       one could rent a room in Paris for Fr 1.50... :-)
. . Or better yet, German: Zwei und Vierzig  (42!)
. 
. Ah, but consider the German for 1988: neunzehn hundert acht und achtzig
. (nine-and-ten hundred eight and eighty).  Middle-endian.  AHA!  Germans
. are PDP-11s!
. -- 
. John Woods, Charles River Data Systems, Framingham MA, (508) 626-1101

I used to work for a German company, and you haven't seen confusion
until you've seen a bunch of German engineers trying to say "68000"
in English, and it keeps coming out "86000", for exactly that reason.

It's an understandable mistake, and we rather got used to it after
a while.
-- 
Clayton E. Cramer
{pyramid,pixar,tekbspa}!optilink!cramer
Disclaimer?  You must be kidding!  No company would hold opinions like mine!