endianness

/EN-dee-un-ness/ · noun · Development · Origin: 1980

Definitions

  1. The order in which bytes of a multi-byte value are stored in memory or transmitted over a network. Big-endian stores the most significant byte first (like writing numbers left-to-right); little-endian stores the least significant first. Named after the Lilliputian factions in Gulliver's Travels who fought over which end of an egg to crack. Network protocols use big-endian; x86 CPUs use little-endian.

    In plain English: The order bytes are arranged in memory — some systems put the big end first, others put the little end first, and mixing them up causes mysterious data corruption.

    Example: The data was garbage because one system sent values in big-endian and the other expected little-endian — a classic endianness bug that took two days to find.

Origin Story

The bitter debate over which end of the byte comes first

Danny Cohen coined the computing use of **endianness** in his legendary 1980 paper 'On Holy Wars and a Plea for Peace' (IEN 137). He borrowed the term from Jonathan Swift's *Gulliver's Travels*, where Lilliputians fought wars over which end of a boiled egg to crack first.

**Big-endian** systems (like Motorola 68000, network protocols) store the most significant byte first. **Little-endian** systems (like x86) store the least significant byte first. Neither is objectively better, yet the choice causes endless compatibility headaches.

Cohen's point was that the debate was as absurd as Swift's egg war, but the industry still couldn't agree. Network byte order is big-endian; x86 is little-endian. Every network programmer has been bitten by the difference at least once.

Coined by: Danny Cohen (computing usage), Jonathan Swift (literary origin)

Context: IEN 137, April 1, 1980 (yes, April Fools' Day)

Fun fact: Cohen's paper was published on April 1, 1980, and many readers initially thought it was an April Fools' joke. It wasn't -- the problem was real and serious. The paper's humorous tone made a dry technical topic memorable and quotable for decades.

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