Re: big + little endian (was: Comparison of Alpha, MIPS ..)

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Article #12461

#12461

From: Dan Rabin
Date: Thu, 07 Jan 1993 13:20

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According to a book I have read that explains the Arabic alphabet,
numerals in Arabic documents are written most-significant-digit
leftmost, whereas the text itself is written from right to left.
Hence the native reader encounters the least-significant digit first
in his or her accustomed reading order.  There's no reason to believe
that Arabic-speaking arithmetic has suffered as a result.

It's interesting to note that the digital notation passed through
Arabic-speaking culture on its way from its Hindu origins to its
adoption by Europeans.  Since Sanskrit is written from left to right,
this probably means that the perceived endian-ness has flipped twice.

  -- Dan Rabin (rabin-dan@cs.yale.edu)

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<1992Dec29.044012.1@cc.curtin.edu.au> <3623363@zl2tnm.gen.nz> <WAYNE.92Dec30093950@backbone.uucp> <markg.79.726169747@county.lmt.mn.org> <1993Jan6.171242.2895@lsl.co.uk>

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Newsgroups: comp.arch
Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!sparky!uunet!think.com!yale.edu!cs.yale.edu!!rabin
From: rabin@CS.Yale.Edu (Dan Rabin)
Subject: Re: big + little endian (was: Comparison of Alpha, MIPS ..)
In-Reply-To: snail@lsl.co.uk's message of 6 Jan 93 17: 12:42 GMT
Message-ID: <RABIN.93Jan7132015@nuthatch.CS.Yale.Edu>
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Reply-To: rabin-dan@cs.yale.edu
Organization: Computer Science, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520-2158
References: <1992Dec29.044012.1@cc.curtin.edu.au> <3623363@zl2tnm.gen.nz>
 <WAYNE.92Dec30093950@backbone.uucp>
 <markg.79.726169747@county.lmt.mn.org> <1993Jan6.171242.2895@lsl.co.uk>
Date: Thu, 7 Jan 1993 13:20:15 GMT
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