yep. You can be fairly certain the short will be 16 bits, but check with sizeof(). In that case, Sparc goes in sequence 0 to 15, while x86 goes 8-to-15, then 0-to-7. The unclear descriptions "bigendian" and "littleendian" apply, probably not in that order. I just call 'em rightendian and wrongendian. In that order. Rich.