[whatwg] API for encoding/decoding ArrayBuffers into text

[Boris Zbarsky]

On 3/16/12 5:44 PM, Charles Pritchard wrote:
> The DataView set of methods already does this work. The raw arrays are
> supposed to have platform endianness.

I haven't seen anyone actually using the DataView stuff in practice, or 
presenting it to developers much...

> If you see some evangelists skipping the endian check, send them an
> e-mail and let them know.

I've done that... then I stopped because it just wasn't worth the 
effort.  Every single WebGL demo I've seen recently was doing this. 
People were being told that typed arrays are a good way to load binary 
(integer and float) data from servers using the arraybuffer facilities 
of XHR at SXSW last week, with no mention of endianness.

I think that trying to get web developers to do this right is a lost 
cause, esp. because none of them (to a good approximation) have any 
big-endian systems to test on.

-Boris