-endian
     
         the ordering of bytes in a multi-byte
        number.
     
        the term comes from swift's "gulliver's travels" via the
        famous paper "on holy wars and a plea for peace" by danny
        cohen, usc/isi ien 137, 1980-04-01.
     
        the lilliputians, being very small, had correspondingly small
        political problems.  the big-endian and little-endian parties
        debated over whether soft-boiled eggs should be opened at the
        big end or the little end.
     
        see big-endian, little-endian, middle-endian, holy
        wars, nuxi problem, swab.
     
        1998-08-09
     
     
see also:
bytes big-endian little-endian middle-endian holy wars nuxi problem 
swab