/** Read a {@code float} field value from the stream. */

          public function readFloat():Number {

            return readRawLittleEndian32();

          }

 /** Read a 32-bit little-endian integer from the stream. */

          public function readRawLittleEndian32():int {

            var b1:int = readRawByte();

            var b2:int = readRawByte();

            var b3:int = readRawByte();

            var b4:int = readRawByte();

            return ((b1 & 0xff)      ) |

                   ((b2 & 0xff) <<  8) |

                   ((b3 & 0xff) << 16) |

                   ((b4 & 0xff) << 24);

          }

          /** Write a {@code float} field, including tag, to the stream. */

          public function writeFloat(fieldNumber:int, value:Number):void {

            writeTag(fieldNumber, WireFormat.WIRETYPE_FIXED32);

            writeRawLittleEndian32(value);

          }

          /** Write a little-endian 32-bit integer. */

          public function writeRawLittleEndian32(value:int):void {

            writeRawByte((value      ) & 0xFF);

            writeRawByte((value >>  8) & 0xFF);

            writeRawByte((value >> 16) & 0xFF);

            writeRawByte((value >> 24) & 0xFF);

          }