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inclusivenaming / org

Pre-release organization info, meeting notes, collaboration, etc.
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Quick note about "Big endian" and "Little endian" #66

Closed markcmiller86 closed 3 years ago

markcmiller86 commented 3 years ago

I got worred these terms might have sprung from Ten little indians but this ref as well as this one say otherwise. Worth knowing in case it ever comes up.

Humbedooh commented 3 years ago

My understanding has always been that this refers to Gulliver's Travels and the fight over which end of an egg to eat from, hence end-ian. To my recollection, the Big Endians prefer to open the big end (what we generally perceive as the bottom of an egg), and the Little Endians prefer opening the little end, what is commonly called the top of the egg. This was then applied to binary representation of numbers, wherein little and big end represents where to put the end and beginning of numbers in binary format. If someone asks about this, perhaps a short note such as this will suffice?

markcmiller86 commented 3 years ago

If someone asks about this, perhaps a short note such as this will suffice?

Sure thing. I guess I am no where near as well read as everyone else 😆