big endian vs. little endian, why 1961

A more basic question, CCSDS aside, is why interpret bits left to right and bytes right to left? Doesn't it make more sense to interpret bits and bytes in the same direction? Surely no one would interpret bits right to left, why bytes?

Someoone stated it is a throwback to random logic machines before microcode, etc. I'm inclined to agree with that.

Good question, but is little endian actually more efficient?

This whole thing sort of reminds me of the difference between straight in-line cylinders vs. V-engine designs of an internal combustion engine. All 4 cylinder cars are not V-type, 6 cylinders are both and straight 8s are a thing of the past. Surely, a V-design favors more cylinders, whereas fewer is better for in-line, as we seem to have learned it the hard way.

Big-endian vs. little-endian doesn't seem that cut and dry however.

This begs the question about how the 1553 bus is constructed WRT endian-ness if there is such a thing.

Also, given the nature of multplexing and demupltplexing of data streams like CCSDS and the Internet WRT routing, isn't the handling of protocols better in a big-endian world?

...for the moment, anyway...

Suffice to say that little-endian tends to work a stack (LIFO) and big-endian works a queue (FIFO). I supposed when you argue which is the better data structure you can make your case anyway you want.

Eric