bit fields in C

[parnass at ihuxf.UUCP]

       There  have  been  some	recent	net  submissions  lamenting
       compiler	 objections  to	the declaration	of long	bit fields.
       According to "The C  Programming	 Language"  (page  137)	 by
       Brian W.	Kernighan and Dennis M.	Ritchie:

		  "A field is a	 set  of  adjacent  bits  within  a
		 single	int....	 Fields	behave like small, unsigned
		 integers,  and	 may  participate   in	 arithmetic
		 expressions just like other integers."


		       Robert S. Parnass
		       Bell Laboratories
		       Naperville, IL
		       ihnp4!ihuxf!parnass