The term `bit' first appeared in print in the computer-science
sense in 1949, and seems to have been coined by early computer
scientist John Tukey. Tukey records that it evolved over a lunch
table as a handier alternative to `bigit' or `binit'.

:bit bang: /n./ Transmission of data on a serial line, when
accomplished by rapidly tweaking a single output bit, in software,
at the appropriate times. The technique is a simple loop with
eight OUT and SHIFT instruction pairs for each byte. Input is more
interesting. And full duplex (doing input and output at the same
time) is one way to separate the real hackers from the
{wannabee}s.

Bit bang was used on certain early models of Prime computers,
presumably when UARTs were too expensive, and on archaic Z80 micros
with a Zilog PIO but no SIO. In an interesting instance of the
{cycle of reincarnation}, this technique returned to use in the
early 1990s on some RISC architectures because it consumes such
an infinitesimal part of the processor that it actually makes sense
not to have a UART. Compare {cycle of reincarnation}.

: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