From: Michael Bruschkewitz <brusch4_removeunderlinesandtextbetween_@...>
Date: 2009-04-04T15:44:29+09:00
Subject: Re: BInary Files


"Joel VanderWerf" <vjoel@path.berkeley.edu> schrieb im Newsbeitrag 
news:49D64FD7.3000006@path.berkeley.edu...
> Michael Bruschkewitz wrote:
>> Is any Lib out there which realizes a bit-stream?
> what would that do?

Writing output bit-wise to a (ex.) string. Read back.
Convert to/from char-array.

Example:
Given:
    a,b,c,d values of different bit-size
    a is a flag is 1 bit long,
    b is 5 bit long, c is 7 bit long.
    d is 3 bit long.
It should be possible:
    bs << a << (1==a ? b : c) << d
    bs >> a >> (1==a ? b : c) >> d

After insertion, bs should contain following bits (p is padding):
    1bbb bbdd dppp pppp
or
    0ccc cccc dddp pppp.

Other example would be var-length array of 5-bit values followed by 
var-length array of 13-bit structs.

Use case: ASN.1 and similar formats.