[boost] Re: endian handling classes

From: Miki Jovanovic (miki_at_[hidden])
Date: 2000-03-10 17:19:24

Oh, I don't know if anyone needs this piece of code, but it will detect
at runtime if your machine is little or big endian...

  bool isLittleEndian() {
    int temp = 1;
    return (*(char*)&temp) != 0;
  }

If we adopted a big/little endian template, we might need this. Again,
if anyone is interested, I have this piece of code in my current
project, which combines defines and active detection. It should be
expanded to more platforms for completeness sake.

#if defined(_M_IX86) || defined(_M_PPC)
# define IS_LITTLE_ENDIAN true
# define LITTLE_ENDIAN
# undef BIG_ENDIAN
#elif defined(_M_ALPHA) || defined(_M_MRX000)
# define IS_LITTLE_ENDIAN false
# undef LITTLE_ENDIAN
# define BIG_ENDIAN
#else
# pragma message( "WARNING: Using active endian detection. Performance
warning." )
# pragma message( "WARNING: No endian defines were made. Some code
might be incomplete." )
 bool g_isLittleEndian() {
  int temp = 1;
  return (*(char*)&temp) != 0;
 }
# define IS_LITTEL_ENDIAN g_isLittleEndian()
#endif

Cheers,

Miki.