bit-aligned read & write

[Munair]

Anyway, I think it's not the moderator's job to add a description of the code when it's missing !

Definitely agree with that.

[deltarho[1859]]

I'm amazed to see that someone who joined in 2005 throws a code snippet on the forum without any description,

This is a classic case of this forum's moderation being far too lenient. I am a great believer in 'nipping things in the bud' to avoid 'making a rod for our own back'. Two idioms in one sentence. I hope that no one objects. Fortunately, idioms can be 'Googled' if not seen before.

[fxm]

I think that the author of such a code punishes himself for this lack of description because there will be no expected substantive discussion but only at best a criticism of the form (or otherwise no response).

[deltarho[1859]]

punishes himself

I don't think so. I am not referring to dafhi here but incompetent people tend to be so daily and are oblivious to their lack of competence. On the contrary, they tend to overestimate their competence.

[jj2007]

I am a great believer in 'nipping things in the bud' to avoid 'making a rod for our own back'. Two idioms in one sentence. I hope that no one objects. Fortunately, idioms can be 'Googled' if not seen before.

Google translate fails the second one, but DeepL gets it right

[deltarho[1859]]

I meant regarding an explanation — not a translation.

[dodicat]

I won't contribute to the battle of wits here for fear of overheating again.
Dafhi, I usually run your code though the pp switch to clarify things, I can peruse your comments at leisure.
And thank you the fast and very robust random number generator you gave the forum a few weeks ago, no complaints about that one I recall.

[dafhi]

well thanks guys for all your comments. Richard posted code years ago and i immediately guessed the functioning from just the words pack and unpack. I could have been wrong, and I never actually looked to try to understand the code.

The way I see it, there appear to be two basic code-perusal thought types
1. tell me why i need this
2. this is what i'm looking for

if my description is as clear as mud, both of the following are likely true
1. i'm not as competent as i think i am
2. the code isn't for you

Thank you dodicat for your kind words. Still working on my new image format. I know I can get a reasonable image facsimile in a few dozen bytes ;)

[edit:] also, thanks for testing the rng