1 Feb
2021
1 Feb
'21
12:15 p.m.
> From: Chuck Guzis <cclist at sydex.com>
> Numbering of bits in a word is also interesting. Is the high order bit
> in a 64 bit word, bit 0 or bit 63? Both conventions have been employed.
On
Mon, 1 Feb 2021, John Ames via cctalk wrote:
This one has always boggled me, because it's the
one aspect of the
Endian Wars where there's a simple, straightforward answer grounded in
basic mathematics - base ^ digit-number only gives the correct
place-value when the lowest-order bit is numbered zero. It's beyond my
ken how anybody thought the reverse was *valid,* let alone a good
idea.
It probably originated from our system of writing numbers with most
significant on the left, least significant on the right.
Then combined with somebody not even thinking in terms of "one's
place"/"ten's place", or "one's place"/"two's
place"/"four's place" etc.
and simply numbering from left to right. It is unfortunate that they were
permitted to do so.