(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.