As far as I can see, they're assuming that double is IEEE 754 and that you can rip apart such a representation on an random-endian machine and re-assemble it on an any other random-endian machine.
I lied. They're actually using that stuff to pick apart the (presumed IEEE 754) doubles into exponent, mantissa, ... My questions still stand ... Also, that file is such a tangled nest of ifdefs ... is anyone sure whether (and if so, when) that code is invoked? DaveL
