Re: [Freeciv-Dev] Is client/server protocol documented anywhere?

[John Goerzen <jgoerzen@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Wed, Jan 20, 1999 at 02:31:47PM +0100, Per Mathisen wrote:

> > So I wonder if we should change to network byte order for
> > the next version.  (Any volunteers to code it? :-)
> 
> What is "network byte order" and why is it better?

Network byte order is big-endian.  The current byte order used by Freeciv is
little-endian.  Using network byte order helps make the protocol more
standard and easier to use by other platforms or clients.  (Ie, a Java
client, or a LISP one, or whatever.)  Some of these systems automatically
translate from network byte order to host byte order, which means that
programs talking to FreeCiv must manually translate back, wasting CPU cycles
and complicating the program.

Basically, it's a good idea because it's "right". :-)

John