Re: Linux/IA-64 byte order

Craig I. Hagan (hagan@cih.com)
10 Mar 1999 16:32:45 -0500


Linus Torvalds <torvalds@transmeta.com> writes:

> I know there are folks out there who like BE, but let's just face it: the
> PC platform is LE, and will stay so. Going to mixed-mode just because
> misguided people like the old BE format is not an option I am willing to
> entertain.
>
> The computing world would be better off with just one byte order, that
> byte order isn't going to be BE.

Personally, i think that Linus has a strong argument here.
More importantly, lets wait until merced's specs
are released before arguing about how one might use hardware
to solve the problem.

Most importantly, I've a funny feeling that doing
any of this in the kernel will be a lose, and it likely
will be far better/smarter to implement any "weird compatibility"
things into either libc, or some 'lib-bigendiancompat"
rather than putting yet another piece of complexity into the kernel.

-- craig

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