Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!mit-eddie!bbn!inmet!ishmael!inmet!ada-uts!stt
From: stt@ada-uts
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Re: Rep Specs - Need user input
Message-ID: <57900080@ada-uts>
Date: 22 Sep 88 14:58:00 GMT
References: <1291@augusta.UUCP>
Lines: 14
Nf-ID: #R:augusta.UUCP:-129100:ada-uts:57900080:000:564
Nf-From: ada-uts!stt    Sep 22 10:58:00 1988


Here is a general comment:  given that the hardware provides
shift and mask instructions, there seems no reason why bit-field
assignments/fetches need be out-of-line.  C-compilers have
been doing this kind of bit-field manipulations in-line
since 1976 or before.  Take a look at the
Gould C compiler, or others, and I am sure you will see reasonable
code for such bit-field operations.  I'm sure Jovial, etc. do the same.
(Concatenating unaligned slices of packed bit arrays is another
matter, of course ...)

Tucker Taft
Intermetrics, Inc.
Cambridge, Mass  02138