Re: bitfield advantages

From: Dmitry Schwartsman (cobol@ntr.net)
Date: 03/08/96


On Fri, 8 Mar 1996, Jaco van Iterson wrote:

> 
> 
> Well actualy you hit the hammer on the nail.
> 
> You need to sort through all the bits when you want to
> display them (stat, ident) or when you load a vector from a world file.
> In fact it's the same disadvantage as the one I mentioned.
> You can sort through the bitfields by converting them back to an array of chars
> (bytes), this is the easiest way but it isn't garanteed to be portable to all
> computers (but then again hardly anything is)
> Or you can make cases for al bitfield structures, which is sure to be portable
> but a lot of work.
> 
> The secret of the bitfields is the :1
> This will make the unsigned int take only 1 bit in memory (as long as you put
> it in a struct along with some other :1 bitfields).
> A bool is a typedef for a signed char in circle so a char and a bool are
> different names for the same thing (both 1 byte usualy).
> So bitfields can take up to 8 times less memory than bools.
> 
> Unsigned does exactly what you say it does (no negative, more positive numbers).
> In a signed something the sign takes up 1 bit so something signed needs to be
> at least 2 bits (1 for the value, 1 for the sign), that's why a bitfield of
> 1 bit needs to be unsigned.
> 
> 
> Jaco
> 
> 
> 
> 
geezes.... why can't c have sets like pascal... sime easy no hasle on 
memmor usage

for setvar := first_set_bit to last_set_bit do
begin
  code of that code for this
end



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