(Also "bIT diddling" or bIT twiddling). Any of several kinds of low-level programming characterised by manipulation of bIT, flag, nibble, 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 flavours 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 the new tape driver looks pretty solid but the bIT-bashing for the control registers still has bugs." See also bIT bang, mode bIT.