Big-endian
1. <data, architecture> A computer
architecture in which, within a given multi-
byte numeric representation, the most significant byte has the lowest address (the word is stored "big-end-first").
Most processors, including the
IBM 370 family, the
PDP-10, the
Motorola microprocessor families, and most of the various
RISC designs current in mid-1993, are big-endian.
See
-endian.
2. <networking, standard> A backward
electronic mail address.
The world now follows the
Internet hostname standard (see
FQDN) and writes e-mail addresses starting with the name of the computer and ending up with the
country code (e.g.
[email protected]).
In the United Kingdom the Joint Networking Team decided to do it the other way round (e.g.
[email protected]) before the
Internet domain standard was established.
Most gateway sites required
ad-hockery in their mailers to handle this.
By July 1994 this parochial idiosyncracy was on the way out and mailers started to reject big-endian addresses.
By about 1996, people would look at you strangely if you suggested such a bizarre thing might ever have existed.
[
Jargon File]
