As I see it, bitmasks are a very important tool for use cases where either performance or memory constraints are important. Performance, because bitwise operations can sometimes achieve the same as more complex arithmetic, but at a fraction of the cost. And memory constraints because storing a single conceptual boolean value in a single bit is about as efficient as you can get, memory-wise.
Although it surely isn't the only one, C++ is truly the language for highly optimized computing. I like the fact that one can have many options for a number data type. For example, we can choose to be as memory-efficient as we want by using a short over a normal int type; unlike in JavaScript where all numbers are 64-bit IEEE 754-compliant. This is good for beginners because they don't have to worry about the intricacies of the language, but when it comes to servers and other large-scale operations, it might be a huge help to the workload if numbers weren't 64 bits long.
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Nice discussion!
As I see it, bitmasks are a very important tool for use cases where either performance or memory constraints are important. Performance, because bitwise operations can sometimes achieve the same as more complex arithmetic, but at a fraction of the cost. And memory constraints because storing a single conceptual boolean value in a single bit is about as efficient as you can get, memory-wise.
Although it surely isn't the only one, C++ is truly the language for highly optimized computing. I like the fact that one can have many options for a number data type. For example, we can choose to be as memory-efficient as we want by using a
shortover a normalinttype; unlike in JavaScript where all numbers are 64-bit IEEE 754-compliant. This is good for beginners because they don't have to worry about the intricacies of the language, but when it comes to servers and other large-scale operations, it might be a huge help to the workload if numbers weren't 64 bits long.