(Sub)bit-fields (Coding with fractions of bits, Part II)

Last week, we used the 6×7×6 palette as an example of very simple fraction-of-a-bit coding¹. However, we can generalize still a bit more to allow single field extraction and modification

The 6×7×6 palette (Coding with fractions of bits, Part I)

Remember ye olde dayes when we had to be mindful of the so-called “web safe palette“? Once upon a time, screens could display 24-bits colors, but only 256 at a time in some “hi-res” modes. But that’s not what I’m going to tell you about: I’d rather tell you about the encoding of the palette, and about a somewhat better palette. And also about using fractions of bits for more efficient encodings.