Path: utzoo!utgpu!utstat!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!purdue!decwrl!ucbvax!pasteur!ames!lamaster
From: lamaster@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Hugh LaMaster)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: Endian wars
Message-ID: <21557@ames.arc.nasa.gov>
Date: 8 Feb 89 17:48:19 GMT
References: <6133@columbia.edu> <186@aucsv.UUCP>
Organization: NASA - Ames Research Center
Lines: 37

In article <186@aucsv.UUCP> ok@aucsv.UUCP (Richard Okeefe) writes:

>So _both_ conventions are "natural" in human writing systems.

That is absolutely true.  

Nevertheless, it is interesting to note that when we "Westerners" try to 
produce a consistent little endian machine, we
always seem to fail.  I thought that the ns32000 series had finally 
done it, but someone recently pointed out that in one small way it isn't
quite.  The fact is, after a typical "Western" education, it seems to be quite
difficult to work with little endian numbers.  Just look at the mess
DEC made of the extensions to the PDP-11 formats when they produced the VAX.  
So, I still claim that it is easier for almost all Anglo/American/European 
folks to use big-endian numbers.  For whatever it is worth.  But since it only
comes up when reading dumps, my real interest in the subject is VERY
limited.  I only want to point out that 
a) there is no big efficiency advantage to using little-endian formats, as
some little endians have claimed (as far as I can see, all such claims
made in this newsgroup have been refuted), and
b) there ARE MANY advantages to having all machines the SAME

Now, DEC just turned down the chance to start evolving in the direction
of common formats with their new RISC machine, so, the best we can hope
for now is a common interchange file format that all machines would create 
when data interchange is required.  I suggest that the time is ripe for
the development of such a standard.  One small request - people who are
working on creating such a standard please include 64 bit integer
(and floating point, but that is usual) formats - there are quite a few
uses for 64 bit integers, and some machines that really need access to
integers at least 48 bits long.

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