Big vs Little Endian

The cluster discusses the debate between big-endian and little-endian byte orders, their relevance in modern hardware like x86 and ARM, network protocols, and software handling.

📉 Falling 0.3x Hardware
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20
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#2205
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Keywords

e.g CPU VAX ARM RIFF IEE KV WAVE problem.html bytesexual.html endian byte little big order pdp mixed bits machines serialization

Sample Comments

tssva May 8, 2021 View on HN

Network byte order is big endian so it is far from being pretty much irrelevant these days.

reactordev Nov 10, 2025 View on HN

Does anyone big endian anymore?

frign Jan 15, 2016 View on HN

Keep in mind not all machines are Little Endian. This assumption is wrong.

toong Jan 17, 2014 View on HN

Hint: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endianness

bcoates May 2, 2013 View on HN

Please tell me it's adjustable between little- and big- endian.

smallstepforman Aug 22, 2018 View on HN

Big endian vs little endian hardware?

kens Aug 13, 2023 View on HN

You're not going to lure me into a big-endian vs little-endian argument :-)

grav Apr 22, 2017 View on HN

In which case do you need to test big endian? Compiler or low-level library development?

pseudolus Dec 24, 2022 View on HN

Sometimes it's best to go with the classics: big-endian versus little-endian.

rocqua Aug 11, 2024 View on HN

Is there a good reason not to use big endian?