< data , architecture > The ordering of bytes in a multi-byte number.
The term comes from Swift's "Gulliver's Travels" via the famous paper "On Holy Wars and a Plea for Peace" by Danny Cohen, USC/ISI IEN 137, 1980-04-01.
The Lilliputians, being very small, had correspondingly small political problems. The Big-Endian and Little-Endian parties debated over whether soft-boiled eggs should be opened at the big end or the little end.
See big-endian , little-endian , middle-endian , holy wars , NUXI problem , swab .
(1998-08-09)