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Re: the Endian issue in interchange formats



Vincent,

Interchange format is not about bytes in machine memory,
its about bytes/octets in files/network.
Bytes in files are 8-bit.

An exotic machine with n-bit byte will have to use 8-bit bytes
for interchange with other machines.

  -Dima



----- Original Message -----
From: vincent@xxxxxxxxxx
To: stds-1788@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Monday, June 23, 2014 1:15:53 PM GMT +04:00 Abu Dhabi / Muscat
Subject: Re: the Endian issue in interchange formats

On 2014-06-17 13:46:59 -0500, Ralph Baker Kearfott wrote:
> I invite discussion on this issue, simultaneous with the voting.
> In particular, does anyone object to completely specifying
> the interchange format by specifying the endian-ness of the
> constituent numbers
> (as is done in the version of the P-1788 document now under vote)?

Why not, but one needs to be careful as one would need to introduce
the notion of byte (most machines have 8-bit bytes, but what about
other machines?).

-- 
Vincent Lefèvre <vincent@xxxxxxxxxx> - Web: <https://www.vinc17.net/>
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Work: CR INRIA - computer arithmetic / AriC project (LIP, ENS-Lyon)