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From: paula@bcsaic.UUCP (Paul Allen)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.m68k
Subject: Re: Big Endian vs Little Endian (was: Intel vs Motorola Byte ordering)
Message-ID: <23@bcsaic.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 11-Dec-86 22:56:59 EST
Article-I.D.: bcsaic.23
Posted: Thu Dec 11 22:56:59 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 16-Dec-86 01:00:24 EST
References: <1509@ihlpl.UUCP> <1335@hoptoad.uucp> <138@pembina.alberta.UUCP> <791@nike.UUCP> <340@minnie.UUCP>
Reply-To: paula@bcsaic.UUCP (Paul Allen)
Followup-To: comp.sys.m68k
Organization: Boeing Computer Services AI Center, Seattle
Lines: 32
Keywords: Little endian, Big endian, Intel, Motorola, Holy wars
Summary: But, I'm an agnostic!

The question of how to order the bytes of a word must be a religious
one.  Where else but in the context of religion do you find such
radically opposite opinions?  I am basically non-religious, but I sure
have a point of view about endedness!  Here is the way I see it:

The machine is there to serve me.  I work best when things read left to
right.  I write numbers with the high order digit on the left.  I want
my machine to show me numbers that way.  If the machine stores strings
and numbers consistently in the same way, then it will have no problem
displaying data in the way I want to see it.  A little-endian machine
stores the bytes of a string left-to-right and the bytes of a number
right-to-left.  Since a hex dump program has no knowledge of what type
of data it is displaying, it cannot reverse the bytes of numbers for me.
(And I'm not sure that I want it to, anyway!)  So a little-endian
machine whose purpose is to serve me forces me into mental gyrations
just to interpret what it is saying!  Baloney!  Other things being
equal, I will always choose a big-endian architecture like the 68000.  
It's just easier to deal with.

Gee, this line of reasoning is so clear, so intuitively obvious.  I
wonder how it would look carved into a stone tablet?  I know!  I'll
start a church! :-) :-) :-)

-- 
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Paul L. Allen                           | "Look out, men! He's armed!"
Boeing Advanced Technology Center       |        "I've got a cheese grater,
POB 24346 M/S 7L-44,                    |        and I'm not afraid to use it!"
Seattle, WA, USA 98124                  | "Don't make it any harder 
(206) 865-3207                          | on yourself, kid! Drop it!"
...!uw-beaver!ssc-vax!bcsaic!paula      |        "Eat mozzarella, copper!"