Where does the expression "brushing bits" come from, and what is the equivalent in English?

Asked

Viewed 7,446 times

9

"Bit brushing" is an expression that means, among other things, "worrying about low-level details", such as excessive and/or unnecessary optimizations.

The English equivalent expression ("bit Brushing") does not appear to exist or be widely used.

Where did this expression come from, and how to translate it concisely into English?

terminology
  • 3

    It’s not an essentially technical subject, although we use the term. It’s more linguistic. Ask on http://portuguese.stackexchange.com/. The meaning is who programs at a low level, who likes to do things more concretely, closer to the hardware, cares about all the details. https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escovador_de_bit

  • 2

    The English expression would be bit Crushing. But I don’t know if this question is on-topic here, maybe the part about origin is more appropriate on http://portuguese.stackexchange.com/ same.

  • 1

    The term bit Crushing sounds familiar to me for bit manipulations in general, but I’m having a hard time finding it being used outside the context of a specific musical effect.

  • @Piovezan It is true, better to use the suggestions of your reply.

  • Pity that Google NGRAM does not cover Portuguese. However, this is the earliest reference to a related term: "The Champion of Sales, so far, is Gabriel Torres' Full Course Hardware book. From those who stand alone, the book teaches how to assemble and disassemble computers, in the best style "bit brusher". - Zero Hora, 11 November 1998'

1 answer

8

Bit twiddling or bit Bashing. Also bit diddling.

Here the original definition of hacker meant "bit-brusher" or someone who loved programming.

So - man -, you’re a hacker of the movement. Not in the sense there origin of the word "bit brusher", someone who loves programming. But it’s a hacker, an integral of the movement.

(TEZA, 2000) Mario Teza, member of the CSL (Free Software Community) and one of the leaders of the Free Software Movement RS - Rio Grande do Sul.

The origin of the term in English bit twiddling comes from old computer hardware where the programmer was spinning controls to manipulate the data.

Drawn from:

Browser other questions tagged terminology

You are not signed in. Login or sign up in order to post.