bitmapped grahics help

[CPPRULZ]

I am doing an online course and for one of the chapters (in Practical C++ Programming by Steve Oualline) it had a bitmapped graphics section-only 4 pages long. The chapter is about bit operations and includes a section about hexadecimals. I understoodit until I got to this passage in bitmapped graphics:

"Suppose we have a small graphics devicce- a 16 by 16 pixel monochrome display. We want to set a bit at 4,7. But we have a problem. There is no data type for an array of bits in C++. The closest we can come is an array of bytes. Our 16 by 16 array of bits now becomes a 2 by 16 array of bytes. [[I]Why isn't it a 2 by 2 array?[/I]] To set the pixel at bit number 4,7 we need to set the fourth bit of byte (0,7). To set this bit we would use the statement bit_array[0][7] |= (0x80>>(4));"

What was the |= in the statement and I am also in need of a step by step explanation of the bit_array[0][7] |= (0x80>>(4)); statement (dont tell me it was explained above-it didnt make sense to me). Also, how would you output a simple 8 bit by 8 bit graphics that has 1 pixel turned on the rest off(because the book has no explanation of how to output that to the console)?
Thank You for your help.

[ddanbe]

| is the bitwise OR operator it means you are performing an OR on 1 bit(0 and 1). This is in contrast with the logical OR operator || which performs his actions on true and false values(booleans)

>> is a bitwise right shift operator.
In your case the hex value 0x80 gets shifted 4 bit-positions to the right.

Hope this helps.

[dougy83]

Our 16 by 16 array of bits now becomes a 2 by 16 array of bytes. [[I]Why isn't it a 2 by 2 array?[/I]]

A byte is made up of 8 bits. Therefore a row can contain the 16 bits in 2 bytes. There are 16 rows, hence 2 x 16 bytes.

Calculate 16 x 16 bits = (2 x 8) x 16 bits = 256 bits.

[CPPRULZ]

Still how would you output the bitmap? And why is there an = sign after the |?

[ddanbe]

a |= b; is the same as a = a | b; It is a sort of shorthand notation. Just as a += b; is the same as a = a + b; It is probably invented to make life of newbies a little harder...

[CPPRULZ]

Oh, wow....I don't know how i didn't see that. Still, how would you output the bitmap and why is the book using hexadecimals-is it really neccessary (can you use just binary)?

[ddanbe]

Well... hexadecimal is a shorthand for binary, but a very usefull one!
Google hexadecimal to find out more!

[CPPRULZ]

I did and I found an article at http://www.codeproject.com/KB/cpp/bitbashing.aspx that explained how a hexadecimal is like a nibble and very useful in representng binary but would it be possible to say bit_array[0][4]=bin 0001 or something like that and do you know of any sites that explain outputing "manual" bitmaps (not pictures)?

thank you for your help

[ddanbe]

What do you mean by "manual" bitmaps?
Do you mean to output zeros and ones instead of pixels?

[CPPRULZ]

Usually when I google bitmaps I get how to upload .bmp's but I want to manualy set the pixels in say a 16by16 bit bitmap (3,6)=1 (2,9)=1...
I looked at the sample program in teh book and it just outputs "." do you know if you could actually make a bitmap in C++.

[ddanbe]

I have found this on http://www.java2s.com/Tutorial/Cpp/CatalogCpp.htm

#include <iostream>
using std::cout;
using std::cin;
using std::endl;

#include <iomanip>
using std::setw;

int main()
{
   unsigned value = 123;
   const int SHIFT = 8 * sizeof( unsigned ) - 1;
   const unsigned MASK = 1 << SHIFT;

   for ( int i = 1; i <= SHIFT + 1; i++ ) 
   {
      cout << ( value & MASK ? '1' : '0' );
      value <<= 1;

      if ( i  8 == 0 )
         cout << ' ';
   }

   cout << endl;
   return 0;
}

the output is :
00000000 00000000 00000000 01111011

Does this help?