26 Nov
2014
26 Nov
'14
12:30 p.m.
From: Guy Sotomayor
The terms long pre-dated modern digital computers.
Actually, the document which, AFAIK, introduced the terms "big-endian" and
"little-endian" to the world of computers was "On Holy Wars and a Plea For
Peace", by Danny Cohen (April, 1980):
http://www.ietf.org/rfc/ien/ien137.txt
and it makes explicit reference to Swift.
(There might have been a slightly earlier version of this note, but I'd have
to go check my hardcopies - something called 'Oceanview Tales' may have
included it.)
Noel
26 Nov
26 Nov
2:35 p.m.
On Wed, 26 Nov 2014, Noel Chiappa wrote:
Actually, the document which, AFAIK, introduced the
terms "big-endian" and
"little-endian" to the world of computers was "On Holy Wars and a Plea
For
Peace", by Danny Cohen (April, 1980):
http://www.ietf.org/rfc/ien/ien137.txt
and it makes explicit reference to Swift.
(There might have been a slightly earlier version of this note, but I'd have
to go check my hardcopies - something called 'Oceanview Tales' may have
included it.)
Swift had a helluva lotta nerve to imply that byte order wasn't very
important.
3:26 p.m.
On 11/26/2014 12:30 PM, Noel Chiappa wrote:
(There might have been a slightly earlier version of
this note, but I'd have
to go check my hardcopies - something called 'Oceanview Tales' may have
included it.)
I'm surprised that Danny didn't address the issue of "which bit in a
word is bit 0" (e.g. IBM S/360 vs. everyone else)? In fact,
big-vs.-little endian debates completely ignore the matter of
"bit-addressable" machines (they do/did exist).
--Chuck
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