(Also "bit diddling" or bit twiddling). Any of several
kinds of low-level programming characterised by manipulation
of bit, flag, nibble, 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 flavours 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 bit bang, mode bit.
Nearby terms:
bisync « bit « bit bang « bit bashing » bitblt » bit bucket » bit decay
