Poll Did you know? Big vs little endian

[agentgonzo]

For those of you who don't know what big and little endian are, take a look [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endianness"]here[/ame].

But I only found out about 2 months ago (despite knowing what it is for the last 10 years) that the term itself comes from Gulliver's Travels in a dispute between Liliput and Blefescu and was used to describe which end of a boiled egg to crack into (the big or the little end, hence the name).

Did you know this?

 

[tl8]

Out of all the computer terms I know, this is the most confusing. It is worse in my embedded systems compiler. But thanks for en-lighting me. I will save this snippet for later.

 

[agentgonzo]

Out of all the computer terms I know, this is the most confusing.

Yes, it is isn't it. It conveys NO INFORMATION whatsoever about what it is talking about or which one is which!

 

[Artlav]

Bytes are flipped, bits are not.
So, on x86 you have 12 34 56 as 56 34 12, but bits in 82 (hex) are written as 10000010 by convention.
On MIPSeb you have 12 34 56 as 12 34 56, and bits are written the same way as x86.

That's the most often confused part of it, tl8.
What confuses you?

 

[Grover]

there should be a poll response for "What on earth are you talking about?"

 

[agentgonzo]

there should be a poll response for "What on earth are you talking about?"

I figured that if you didn't know what big/little endian was, you just wouldn't vote.

 

[tl8]

Bytes are flipped, bits are not.
So, on x86 you have 12 34 56 as 56 34 12, but bits in 82 (hex) are written as 10000010 by convention.
On MIPSeb you have 12 34 56 as 12 34 56, and bits are written the same way as x86.

That's the most often confused part of it, tl8.
What confuses you?

Mainly which convention applies where. Of course, the compiler I use, uses some version, I have no idea what, I just swap it until it works.

The concept itself is simple, but usage is patchy

 

[Spacethingy]

I knew about the Gulliver thing, but I had no idea how it linked to the encoding thing!

 

[orb]

I knew about the Gulliver thing, but I had no idea how it linked to the encoding thing!

The opposite for me. :lol: When I hear "big-endian" I recall programming ARM processors at the beginning of 2000s, and as I programmed x86 since 1992 little-endian form of number viewed in machine code is more natural to me, but I've never known it's taken from Gulliver.

 

[Urwumpe]

I had learned this at University, but it is still a nice story about how names in computer science had developed... like the origin of the word "bug".

 

[PhantomCruiser]

Yahoo as well.

 

[Urwumpe]

Or why a penguin became Linux mascot... funny story, even without the legends.

 

[Quick_Nick]

Mainly which convention applies where. Of course, the compiler I use, uses some version, I have no idea what, I just swap it until it works.

The concept itself is simple, but usage is patchy

I have yet to totally figure out the Atari 2600. I use the same technique in making an emulator: if it didn't work, flip the bits, if that didn't work, flip the bytes, and every once in a while you have to practically randomize everything -_-

 

[Artlav]

Weird pattern on the screen.
Little-endian data bus, big-endian CPU, little-endian graphics controller.
Try figuring out where to swap the stuff.

Yes, it could be confusing in due of lack of proper documentation.

 

[jedidia]

Where's the poll option for those knowing the terms in the guliverian context, but had no idea it is used in mathemathics?

 

[Quick_Nick]

Weird pattern on the screen.
Little-endian data bus, big-endian CPU, little-endian graphics controller.
Try figuring out where to swap the stuff.

Yes, it could be confusing in due of lack of proper documentation.

http://nocash.emubase.de/2k6specs.htm#videoplayfield
Check out the video playfield section.
Documentation had indeed been a bit of a problem for other things.

 

[HarvesteR]

I really didn't expect that people would know the terms from Gulliver's Travels, and not from the computing paradigm...

I must have missed a very important part of my childhood :lol:

Cheers

 

[Tommy]

I knew it was from Gulliver's Travels, but didn't remember the specifics. Then again, it was over 25 years ago that I first learned the difference (both z-80 based systems, and the Commodore's 65xx processors were little-endian, while the Amiga was big-endian.)

 

[orb]

I knew it was from Gulliver's Travels, but didn't remember the specifics.

See another thread with poll for preferred endian of boiled eggs. :lol:
All Gulliver's Travels I've read or watched were translated to Polish, so I wasn't familiar with those terms there, but they've been always kept untranslated for computers here.

 

[Declan]

I love Swift, so I certainly did know both meanings of the word, great book. Highly recommend "A Modest Proposal" as well if you need a laugh!

And by the way, someone mentioned childhood, you'll probably enjoy it more as an adult, it's far funnier!