Notes on  BIT BASHING 

(alt.: bit diddling or BIT TWIDDLING) Term used to describe any of
several kinds of low-level programming characterized by manipulation
of BIT, FLAG, NYBBLE, and other smaller-than-character-sized
pieces of data; these include low-level device control, encryption
algorithms, checksum and error-correcting codes, hash functions, some
flavors of graphics programming (see BITBLT), and
assembler/compiler code generation. May connote either tedium or a
real technical challenge (more usually the former). "The command
decoding for the new tape driver looks pretty solid but the
bit-bashing for the control registers still has bugs." See also {mode
bit}.

J3N Research Labs

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