Endian[n]ess, language-specific problems and help with egcs.

[Mike Stump]

> Date: Mon, 17 Aug 1998 10:00:45 -0700
> From: Smith <smith@vaj5184.tu.hac.com>
> Cc: egcs@cygnus.com

> I was wondering if there is a list of what endian[n]ess a CPU/OS
> uses. I also realize that it's more complicated in that some CPU's
> like PPC support LE in addition to BE, so does that mean that PPC's
> are BE under MacOS/Linux/BeOS, and LE under NT?

> And from what I've read, it also appears that Alpha and SGI have
> some kind of support for both BE and LE.

> I've also seen somewhere that VAX seemed to use neither BE ('1234')
> or LE ('4321'), but instead '2143' or something like that. Is that
> right?

> I ask this to the egcs list since I'm assuming that the compiler
> writers would know this topic in excruciating detail. ;)

This is an excellent example of questions that should not be asked on
egcs, and should not be answered, even if asked.  The question is
trivially answered if the user had read the documentation, and knew
how to grep.  We should teach neither, we should only expect it.