[boost] [endian] does not work

From: Johan Råde (rade_at_[hidden])
Date: 2006-10-13 04:27:51

Markus Schöpflin wrote:
> Johan Råde wrote:
> 
> [snip]
> 
>> 1. The header <boost/detail/endian.hpp> sometimes gives incorrect 
>> results. As John Maddock has pointed out, some processors can be 
>> operated in both BE and LE mode. So it may be difficult to fix this 
>> problem.
> 
> [snip]
> 
> Note that the Alpha processor can operate in big or little endian mode, 
> too. AFAIK, Tru64/Alpha always uses little endian. But I have no idea about 
> Linux/Alpha, for example. Anyway, I think it's fairly safe to assume fixed 
> endianess given a specific CPU _and_ OS.
> 
> Markus

The header <boost/detail/endian.hpp> should be revised.
Now it only looks at the processor type.
If the processor is Itanium or Alpha, then it defines BOOST_LITTLE_ENDIAN.

It may need to look at both processor type and O/S.
But according to John, Itanium can be operated in both BE and LE mode 
under HP-UX.
So the header may have to define a symbol BOOST_UNKNOWN_ENDIAN when it 
can not deduce the endianness.

--Johan