Byte sex confusion

[Steven O'Neill <oneills@top.monad.net>]

I have an interesting problem well known to anyone who has tried to
develop on multiple platforms.  I have binary data that was recorded on
a big-endian machine (SGI) which I am in need of reading on a
little-endian machine (Intel).  The current method involves using C
routines to fread the data into buffers and then casting the data into a
variety of Ada records.  

This is a dangerous practice (its not my code) but it works fine as long
as the layout of the records remain the same and the underlying data
formats are consistent.

What I'm looking for are ideas on how to access this data in an easy anc
consistent fashion on both architectures...  Any ideas?

Thanks,
Steve O'Neill