Converting structs of binary data among machine types

[John Gilmore]

In article <274 at ccivax.UUCP>, rb at ccivax.UUCP (rex ballard) writes:
> Speaking of inter-processor communications, how about a binary
> "packf()/unpackf()" function for the library.  It can get real hairy
> trying to get a complex structure of long words, shorts, and chars
> between a VAX or PDP-11 and a 68000 in binary form.  For that matter
> letting a 68000 and an 8088 share the same disk can do real strange
> things to "plot(5)" and similar binary files that write different order
> & length "ints".

This is one of the problems that the Sun NFS had to solve.  They solved
it with "Network Data Representation" or NDR.  The package that
implements NDR was posted to the net within the last year (with the
Remote Procedure Call, RPC, package); contact your local or nearby
net.sources archive for a copy.