bit bashing

n. (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.

