
The term ‘endian’ as derived from ‘end’ may lead to confusion. Unfortunately, it is highly likely that both formats will be encountered on a regular basis. Digital forensic examiners have to understand the byte order concept so that they can correctly interpret the data they encounter during a forensic examination. To fully understand and interpret data correctly, it is important to understand how data is stored. Since the difference is trivial we may choose either way, but a decision must be made. We agree that the difference between sending eggs with the little, or the big-end first is trivial, but we insist that everyone must do it in the same way, to avoid anarchy. Therefore, he suggests, that everyone does it in his own preferred way.

Swift’s point is that the difference between breaking the egg at the little-end and breaking it at the big-end is trivial. It may be interesting to notice that the point which Jonathan Swift tried to convey in Gulliver’s Travels is exactly the opposite of the point of this note. He explained the issue of deciding whether the little end or the big end should come first. He discussed the order that individual bytes within a larger ‘word’ (unit of data) can be stored and transmitted. It illustrates the fact that something quite simple can be done in two completely different ways.ĭanny Cohen wrote a technical publication in 1980 entitled “ On Holy Wars and a Plea for Peace” in which he reused the terms in the context of computing and telecommunication. This seemingly trivial controversy had led to ongoing war between the two empires during which many thousands had been killed.
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They were mortal enemies because the emperor of Lilliput had decreed that boiled eggs were to be cracked at the “little end”, whereas on Blefuscu they had always cracked their eggs at the “big end”. In this fictitious world there were two island nations, Lilliput and Blefuscu. The term endian comes from the novel Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift.
