🚀 go-pugleaf

The only common disk or tape format that I am aware of that is rigorously 
byte-order-neutral is ISO9660, which goes to the extremes of recording 
EVERY value TWICE (once each way), so that no reading application ever has to 
do an order translation.

This only works because the format was intended for a read-only medium (even 
though it is now used for read-mostly media too) so the overhead of 
calculating reversed-order values at write time could be justified by a great
simplification of read-time processing. (Note that the reading application 
DISREGARDS the "inappropriate" data.)

Given this exception (and its rationale for existing), Vernon is correct 
in stating that the best "real world" behavior is to pick a byte order and 
live with it, even if some number of applications will need to do order 
reversal.  Agonize over which way to go, calculate which way minimizes the 
grief, but then freeze the result and live with it!


Milan J. Merhar   milan@xyplex.com