6.1*) shellflags="-m+65536" ;;
esac
case "$optimize" in
-# If we used fastmd (the default) integer values would be limited to 43 bits.
+# If we used fastmd (the default) integer values would be limited to 46 bits.
# --Mark P. Lutz
'') optimize="$optimize -h nofastmd" ;;
esac
=item *
Now using full quad integers (64 bits), previously was using
-only 43 bit integers for speed.
+only 46 bit integers for speed.
=back
0x12 0x34 0x56 0x78 # big-endian
0x78 0x56 0x34 0x12 # little-endian
-Basically, the Intel, Alpha, and VAX CPUs are little-endian, while
-everybody else, for example Motorola m68k/88k, PPC, Sparc, HP PA,
-Power, and Cray are big-endian. MIPS can be either: Digital used it
-in little-endian mode; SGI uses it in big-endian mode.
+Basically, the Intel and VAX CPUs are little-endian, while everybody
+else, for example Motorola m68k/88k, PPC, Sparc, HP PA, Power, and
+Cray are big-endian. Alpha and MIPS can be either: Digital/Compaq
+used/uses them in little-endian mode; SGI/Cray uses them in big-endian mode.
The names `big-endian' and `little-endian' are comic references to
the classic "Gulliver's Travels" (via the paper "On Holy Wars and a
Conflicting storage orders make utter mess out of the numbers. If a
little-endian host (Intel, VAX) stores 0x12345678 (305419896 in
-decimal), a big-endian host (Motorola, MIPS, Sparc, PA) reads it as
-0x78563412 (2018915346 in decimal). To avoid this problem in network
-(socket) connections use the C<pack> and C<unpack> formats C<n>
-and C<N>, the "network" orders. These are guaranteed to be portable.
+decimal), a big-endian host (Motorola, Sparc, PA) reads it as
+0x78563412 (2018915346 in decimal). Alpha and MIPS can be either:
+Digital/Compaq used/uses them in little-endian mode; SGI/Cray uses
+them in big-endian mode. To avoid this problem in network (socket)
+connections use the C<pack> and C<unpack> formats C<n> and C<N>, the
+"network" orders. These are guaranteed to be portable.
You can explore the endianness of your platform by unpacking a
data structure packed in native format such as: