Index: epan/proto.h
===================================================================
--- epan/proto.h	(revision 39201)
+++ epan/proto.h	(working copy)
@@ -205,13 +205,26 @@
  * Currently, proto_tree_add_item() treats its last argument as a
  * Boolean - if it's zero, the field is big-endian, and if it's non-zero,
  * the field is little-endian - and other code in epan/proto.c does
- * the same.  We therefore define ENC_BIG_ENDIAN as 0x00000000 and
- * ENC_LITTLE_ENDIAN as 0x80000000 - we're using the high-order bit
- * so that we could put a field type and/or a value such as a character
- * encoding in the lower bits.
+ * the same.  We therefore define the encoding argument as follows:
+ *
+ *    32       31 - 2        1
+ *  +---+--------//--------+---+
+ *  |EA |   CHAR ENCODING  | E |
+ *  +---+--------//--------+---+
+ *
+ *  EA = Endian Applicability bit
+ *      1 = Endian bit is NOT applicable
+ *      0 = Endian bit IS applicable
+ *  CHAR ENCODING = Character encoding as follows:
+ *      0x00000000 = UTF-8 or ASCII
+ *      0x0EBCD1C0 = EBCDIC
+ *  E = Endian bit:
+ *      0 = Big Endian
+ *      1 = Little Endian
  */
-#define ENC_BIG_ENDIAN		0x00000000
-#define ENC_LITTLE_ENDIAN	0x80000000
+#define ENC_ENDIAN_APPLICABILITY_MASK	0x80000000
+#define ENC_ENDIAN_APPLICABLE			0x00000000
+#define ENC_ENDIAN_NOT_APPLICABLE		0x80000000
 
 /*
  * Historically FT_TIMEs were only timespecs; the only question was whether
@@ -255,6 +268,12 @@
 #define ENC_ASCII		0x00000000
 #define ENC_EBCDIC		0x0EBCD1C0
 
+/* The 'E' bit: */
+#define ENC_ENDIAN_MASK					0x00000001
+#define ENC_LITTLE_ENDIAN				TRUE
+#define ENC_BIG_ENDIAN					FALSE
+
+
 /*
  * For protocols (FT_PROTOCOL), aggregate items with subtrees (FT_NONE),
  * opaque byte-array fields (FT_BYTES), and other fields where there
@@ -262,7 +281,7 @@
  * of bytes" or because the encoding is completely fixed), we
  * have ENC_NA (for "Not Applicable").
  */
-#define ENC_NA			0x00000000
+#define ENC_NA			(ENC_ENDIAN_NOT_APPLICABLE|ENC_UTF_8|ENC_BIG_ENDIAN)
 
 /* Values for header_field_info.display */
 
Index: epan/proto.c
===================================================================
--- epan/proto.c	(revision 39201)
+++ epan/proto.c	(working copy)
@@ -1260,6 +1260,12 @@
 			break;
 
 		case FT_BYTES:
+			if ((encoding_arg & ENC_ENDIAN_APPLICABILITY_MASK) == ENC_ENDIAN_APPLICABLE) {
+				/* TODO: Issue some sort of warning, expert_info(), ...?
+				 * g_warning("Endian not applicable for type %d.\n",
+				 * 	new_fi->hfinfo->type); */
+			}
+			encoding = encoding_arg & ENC_ENDIAN_MASK;
 			proto_tree_set_bytes_tvb(new_fi, tvb, start, length);
 			break;
 
@@ -1294,12 +1300,12 @@
 		case FT_UINT16:
 		case FT_UINT24:
 		case FT_UINT32:
-			/*
-			 * Map all non-zero values to little-endian for
-			 * backwards compatibility.
-			 */
-			if (encoding)
-				encoding = ENC_LITTLE_ENDIAN;
+			if ((encoding_arg & ENC_ENDIAN_APPLICABILITY_MASK) == ENC_ENDIAN_NOT_APPLICABLE) {
+				/* TODO: Issue some sort of warning, expert_info(), ...?
+				 * g_warning("Endian marked as not applicable for type %d.\n",
+				 * 	new_fi->hfinfo->type); */;
+			}
+			encoding = encoding_arg & ENC_ENDIAN_MASK;
 			proto_tree_set_uint(new_fi,
 				get_uint_value(tvb, start, length, encoding));
 			break;
@@ -1695,7 +1701,7 @@
 			DISSECTOR_ASSERT_NOT_REACHED();
 			break;
 	}
-	FI_SET_FLAG(new_fi, (encoding & ENC_LITTLE_ENDIAN) ? FI_LITTLE_ENDIAN : FI_BIG_ENDIAN);
+	FI_SET_FLAG(new_fi, (encoding & ENC_ENDIAN_MASK) ? FI_LITTLE_ENDIAN : FI_BIG_ENDIAN);
 
 	/* Don't add new node to proto_tree until now so that any exceptions
 	 * raised by a tvbuff access method doesn't leave junk in the proto_tree. */