1 Feb
2021
1 Feb
'21
10:59 a.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.
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.
1 Feb
1 Feb
11:13 a.m.
On 2/1/21 1:59 PM, John Ames via cctech 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.
For all that I agree with you that little-endian is clearly the right
answer and for exactly the reason you state, it's pretty easy to see
where big-endian representation came from.? That's how we write numbers
in English, we write them big-endian.? There ya go, it's as simple as that.
Sure, one can get into the story that our numbers come from Arabic and
Arabic is written right-to-left so in fact they were originally
little-endian and just didn't get flipped around when incorporated into
left-to-right languages but that's all lost in the past.? Today, we
write numbers, in English, big-endian so it's no surprise at all that
some computers followed that common practice.
Dave
11:40 a.m.
On Feb 1, 2021, at 2:13 PM, David Bridgham via cctalk
<cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
...
Sure, one can get into the story that our numbers come from Arabic and
Arabic is written right-to-left so in fact they were originally
little-endian and just didn't get flipped around when incorporated into
left-to-right languages but that's all lost in the past. Today, we
write numbers, in English, big-endian so it's no surprise at all that
some computers followed that common practice.
In Hebrew at least, numbers are written left to right. Also, as I understand it, in
Arabic our numbers are called "Indian numbers" in recognition of the fact that
they originated in India. They came to Europe via Arabia, but that's not their point
of origin apparently.
paul
12:15 p.m.
New subject: bit numbering (Was: APL\360
> 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.
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