Differences between version 11 and predecessor to the previous major change of BigEndian.
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| Newer page: | version 11 | Last edited on Thursday, February 24, 2005 4:32:48 am | by HubertFröhlich | Revert |
| Older page: | version 4 | Last edited on Friday, February 6, 2004 8:55:53 am | by FahdKhan | Revert |
@@ -1,7 +1,20 @@
-Big [Endian] is where you send/store the number 0x01020304 as "01 02 03 04". This was traditionally used for larger machines, and since larger machines had network connectivity, NetworkByteOrder has been traditionally BigEndian.
+Big [Endian] is where you send/store the number 0x01020304 as "01 02 03 04". This was traditionally used for larger machines, and since larger machines had network connectivity, NetworkByteOrder has been traditionally BigEndian. [1]
English and most European languages are traditionally BigEndian: we write numbers "1234" when we mean "one thousand, two hundred and thirty four". By contrast, Semitic languages such as Arabic and Hebrew are LittleEndian -- despite the fact that the digits are written in the same order -- because those languages are read right-to-left. So "1234" in Arabic is STILL "one thousand, two hundred and thirty four", it's just read out in reverse order.
-Compare
LittleEndian.
+Funny phenomena in different everyday's languages:
+ * "twenty-one" in English is BigEndian.
+ * "einundzwanzig" in German means "one-and-twenty" and is
LittleEndian.
+ * However, this German phenomenon holds only for tens and ones, not for hundreds: "dreihunderteinundzwanzig" means "three-hundred-and-one-and-twenty" and mixes both Endians!!
Most [SiliconGraphicsIndy]'s are BigEndian.
+
+
+What is "little endian" and "big endian" in computer CPUs? See [Endian].
+
+
+Compare LittleEndian.
+
+-----
+
+[1] Big and Little Endian are a reference to the book "Gullivers Travels", where a tribe of tiny people divide themselves into two factions over which end they should cut their eggs open at - the big end, or the little end.
