> I'm speaking specifically of the encode/decode functions.  I have no idea how
> they're implemented.
>
> Are you saying that encode is doing something really simple and the default
> encodings for things just happen to be big endian?  If so, then I understand
> the pain.... but it still means I have to roll my own :-)  I guess if one must
> choose, big endian kind of makes sense, except that the whole world is little
> endian now, except for networks :-)  (No one *really* cares about anything but
> x86 anyway these days right?)

Oh, 'encode' has type:

   encode :: Binary a => a -> ByteString

it just encodes with the default instances, which are all network order:

   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endianness#Endianness_in_networking

-- Don