
\S byte order:  half word order \S

Byte order and half word order refer to the order that data is stored in
computer memory.  Some computers store data as we read in English, left to
right.  Other computers have different methods of organizing the data.
Byte order and half word order are important when you are transmitting
information from one computer to another. If your computer has a different
byte order or half word order than the computer you're transmitting to,
your files will be scrambled.  For example, your computer stores the word
HELP as HELP.  A computer you're transmitting HELP to has 4 "byte"\S*\S
"words"\S*\S and stores data in units of "half words"\S*\S.  If you
transmitted HELP to this computer, it would be stored as HE and LP.  But,
if you transmitted HELP to a computer that reverses the half word order,
you would be storing the letters incorrectly as LP and HE.  When you
printed the stored data you would have LPHE.

\S*\S defined in the \Sglossary\S
