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And you can use the popular set of macros for c++(getmask, field, etc..) which make things even easier; there's probably a million way to do this...

True, and bitfields are available to C++ as well, but this thread seemed to be geared specifically to C by what was written in the first post.

i.e.

One of the hardest concepts to grasp with C (or most GPPLs) is the concepts of masking and shifting (and likewise rotating with and without carry).