Re: Questions?

[Ralf Baechle <ralf@oss.sgi.com>]

On Thu, Mar 07, 2002 at 02:11:50PM +0100, Geert Uytterhoeven wrote:

> > The MIPS ABI only covers big endian systems - every "real" MIPS UNIX
> > system is big endian.  Everything else is a GNU extension.  There is
> > hardly any reason to choose a particular byteorder as usually endianess
> > swapping takes so little CPU time that it isn't even meassurable but so
> > I'm told there are exceptions.  If portability of software you're
> > going to write wrt. external data representation (disk or network) is
> > of any importance then I suggest you use a system of the opposite
> > endianess which trip problems much faster.
> 
> I really like the last part! ;-)
> 
> BTW, you forgot to mention to go for a full 64-bit port, to trip even more
> problems faster :-)

Fortunately in practice that hasn't been a minefield as big as you'd imagine.

  Ralf