Endianness

Curs de sisteme de mediere pentru telecom. O lunga discuţie are loc despre diverse formate binare de CDR - şi un mic război despre codări are loc: de ce little-endian sau big-endian ? După jumătate de oră de discuţii inflăcarate, citesc pe wikipedia despre etimologie şi mă amuz căci imi dau seama că termenul vine din "Călătoriile lui Gulliver" de Swift:

The term big-endian originally comes from Jonathan Swift’s satirical novel Gulliver’s Travels by way of Danny Cohen in 1980. In 1726, Swift described tensions in Lilliput and Blefuscu: whereas royal edict in Lilliput requires cracking open one’s soft-boiled egg at the small end, inhabitants of the rival kingdom of Blefuscu crack theirs at the big end (giving them the moniker Big-endians). The terms little-endian and endianness have a similar intent.

"On Holy Wars and a Plea for Peace" by Danny Cohen ends with: "Swift’s point is that the difference between breaking the egg at the little-end and breaking it at the big-end is trivial. Therefore, he suggests, that everyone does it in his own preferred way. We agree that the difference between sending eggs with the little- or the big-end first is trivial, but we insist that everyone must do it in the same way, to avoid anarchy. Since the difference is trivial we may choose either way, but a decision must be made."

dar şi pentru că o carte scrisă acum aproape 300 de ani e incă relevantă in observaţiile ei asupra mecanismelor in limitele cărora funcţionează creierul uman.