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Re: [SLUG] Endian-ness.

To: David Fisher <dfisher@nospam.jedi.apana.org.au>
Subject: Re: [SLUG] Endian-ness.
From: ken@nospam.nlc.net.au
Date: 2 Apr 2000 19:11:12 +1000
Cc: Sydney Linux Users Group <slug@nospam.slug.org.au>
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> Would some kind soul mind explaining what this Endian business is all
> about?
> I have seen frequent references to it on this list but not elsewhere.
>
> I was not hitherto aware that Jonathan Swift was a Linux user, nor can I
> find
> any other reference to Unix in "Gulliver's Travels".

RFC1208 says:

big-endian: A format for storage or transmission of binary data in
which the most significant bit (or byte) comes first.  The reverse
convention is called little-endian.

Normally people think of computer architectures when endianess is
mentioned, but the definition above indicates it is a wider concept.
E.g. for machines x86 is little-endian; 68k and Sparc are big endian.
Programmers of network software have to aware of the issues.
 

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Follow-Ups:
- RE: [SLUG] Endian-ness.
  - From: "Aravind Naidu" <aravind.naidu@nospam.software-assoc.com>

References:
- [SLUG] Endian-ness.
  - From: David Fisher <dfisher@nospam.jedi.apana.org.au>

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