APL\360

[John Ames]

> 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.