Re: RBB: Realy Big Bitvector

From: Jaco van Iterson (J.C.vanIterson@ET.TUDelft.NL)
Date: 12/06/95


Instead of using the method described for realy big bitvectors, you could
try the bitfield code which I downloaded to the incoming directory of
the circle ftp-site.

In this bitfield code every flag has it's own 1-bit integer (can be 0 or 1)
so setting a flag would simply be something like player.affection.curse = 1;
Becouse of the special structure used (bitfield) this wont take more room
in memory as normal bitvectors.


By the way: A char (signed or unsigned) can never hold more then 8 bits.

If you want arbitrary big storage room for flags you should use the
bitfield method or an array of chars.

A way to adress the flags other then by the bitfield method (integers
wouldn't work anymore past 32 bits) could be by using a string for the bits
like "ab|hi|d" where the first 26 bits are "a" to "z", and the next 26 bits
are "a" to "z" behind a "|", and so on.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Experienced coders can stop reading here, here folows some explanation how
chars are stored in memory.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

As a matter of fact a char consists of exactly 8 bits (a byte), numbers are
stored in a char by setting this bits on or off. Each bit has a value and
by adding this values together you get the number the char represents.
The values of the bits are: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64 and 128 (or -128 for signed).
Other ways to represent this numbers are: 2^0, 2^1, .... 2^7  (or -2^7).
and 1<<0, 1<<1, .... 1<<7. I prefer this last one (same for signed and unsigned)

Mostly the bits are numbered 0 to 7 (don't confuse this with the values)
if you type something like 1 & 5 you are doing a "bitwise and" operation
on two chars, the first char has bit 0 set and the second bit 0 and bit 2
(values 1 and 4). A & operation gives you the bits which are set in both
chars so 1 & 5 would be 1 (and not 6), both 1 and 5 have bit 0 set (value 1).


I hope this helps.


Jaco



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