On Wed, Jun 12, 2002 at 10:37:37AM +0200, Elizabeth Mattijsen wrote: > At 05:30 PM 6/11/02 -0600, bbcannon wrote: > >My initial try with "V" did not work, but I'm going to > >keep pecking at it. If a double is represented in C with > >32 bits... > > I'm assuming that. It may not always be true. I've been lead to > understand that some compilers for 64bit processors consider a double to be > 64 bit.
I think it's never true. I've never known float to be anything but 32 bits, and double to be anything but 64 bits on any system I've used, nearly all of which have int and long both as 32 bits. However, I'd not be surprised if float was 64 bits on Crays. > > > >..., then "V" makes sense to me. > >However, I am working on a networked Sun Station, so I think I will try > >"N" also. I have no idea what a big-endian and little-endian is. > > It relates to the way numbers are represented in the hardware of your > computer. Multi-byte values, such as 256, can be stored as (expressed in hex) > 00 01 (little endian) or 01 00 (big endian). And is based on the dispute between Lilliput and its neighbour Blefuscu over which way up eggs should be eaten, in Jonathan Swift's novel Gulliver's Travels. There seems to be a complete text online, the relevant chapter being at http://www.jaffebros.com/lee/gulliver/bk1/chap1-4.html Nicholas Clark
