Unless you're not talking about byte order. The concept also applies to dates, in which case 2004-01-09 is big endian, 9 January 2004 is little endian, and January 9, 2004 is middle endian. And eggs.
But seriously - it should be clear that big endian things are daft too. The only thing which persuades us even for a moment that big endian makes any sense at all is that we write big numbers with most significant digit on the left and yet we enumerate lists left to right.
Little endian is the One True Way. I want my entire computer to just store ONE BIG NUMBER !
(Plus, furthermore, "Ten little, nine little..." etc. !)
The only thing which persuades us even for a moment that big endian makes any sense at all is that we ...
... want to be able to read our own data off a memory dump.
And yes, on balance of things we should bite the bullet and use little endian machines, but at least there's an argument to have. American dates are just rubbish.
Big endian dates (2004-01-09) are vastly preferable to little endian dates (09/01/2004) given that we use a big endian numeral system, because it means you have an outside chance of being able to sort them.
I feel I have to point out here that teh song (which, thanks to you, bateleur, I have been humming all morning, actually starts little endian - as in, "One little, two little, three little endians".
Hmm. But if I observe that the US writes dates middle endian then no-one will know what I mean.
If, however, I point out that December 8 (as opposed to 8 December) is Just Wrong, I'm probably onto a better thing. December 8 means the 8th (instance of) December, like in Henry VII or Omen III, not the 8th (day of) December.
And if I see "best before January 04" on a US-bought lunch, would that mean it's 5 days out of date or I've got until the end of the month to eat it?
And all you BBC newsreaders: it's 11/9, not 9/11!!
if I observe that the US writes dates middle endian then no-one will know what I mean.
Possibly, but if they're not American they will still somehow instinctively know that it's Just Wrong.
best before January 04
I don't know how Americans write best before dates, but possibly they match our style and write "best before end" if they mean the end of the month. Note that even in British English, "best before January 2004" clearly means that you should finish it up by New Year's Eve 2003, since January is not before January.
In any case, Americans don't generally use "January 04" for the fourth day of January, they use "January 4".
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2004-01-09 02:39 am (UTC)there's no reason in the world
Unless you're not talking about byte order. The concept also applies to dates, in which case 2004-01-09 is big endian, 9 January 2004 is little endian, and January 9, 2004 is middle endian. And eggs.
no subject
Date: 2004-01-09 02:40 am (UTC)And it was all going so well.
no subject
Date: 2004-01-09 02:42 am (UTC)The point being that anything middle endian is automatically Just Wrong.
no subject
no subject
Date: 2004-01-09 02:59 am (UTC)But seriously - it should be clear that big endian things are daft too. The only thing which persuades us even for a moment that big endian makes any sense at all is that we write big numbers with most significant digit on the left and yet we enumerate lists left to right.
Little endian is the One True Way. I want my entire computer to just store ONE BIG NUMBER !
(Plus, furthermore, "Ten little, nine little..." etc. !)
no subject
Date: 2004-01-09 03:21 am (UTC)The only thing which persuades us even for a moment that big endian makes any sense at all is that we ...
... want to be able to read our own data off a memory dump.
And yes, on balance of things we should bite the bullet and use little endian machines, but at least there's an argument to have. American dates are just rubbish.
Big endian dates (2004-01-09) are vastly preferable to little endian dates (09/01/2004) given that we use a big endian numeral system, because it means you have an outside chance of being able to sort them.
no subject
Date: 2004-01-09 04:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-01-09 03:00 am (UTC)If, however, I point out that December 8 (as opposed to 8 December) is Just Wrong, I'm probably onto a better thing. December 8 means the 8th (instance of) December, like in Henry VII or Omen III, not the 8th (day of) December.
And if I see "best before January 04" on a US-bought lunch, would that mean it's 5 days out of date or I've got until the end of the month to eat it?
And all you BBC newsreaders: it's 11/9, not 9/11!!
--
Richard
no subject
Date: 2004-01-09 03:16 am (UTC)if I observe that the US writes dates middle endian then no-one will know what I mean.
Possibly, but if they're not American they will still somehow instinctively know that it's Just Wrong.
best before January 04
I don't know how Americans write best before dates, but possibly they match our style and write "best before end" if they mean the end of the month. Note that even in British English, "best before January 2004" clearly means that you should finish it up by New Year's Eve 2003, since January is not before January.
In any case, Americans don't generally use "January 04" for the fourth day of January, they use "January 4".