BitFummler – Bit- uh – What?

Jürgen Welzenbach

01/09/2021

Self-praise stinks! I agree. But in this case, it's not a problem, because the lack of browser-based smell support means there's no burden on readers ;-) So, what's the point?

A long time ago, I was suffering from my inadequate mental arithmetic skills – and they certainly haven't improved over the years. So I started "carving" a small tool to make it easier for me to convert from decimals to hex and various other number systems. (Note: If the saying "A fool with a tool is still a fool" springs to mind here – that's certainly true :-D )

Gradually, further functions were added, some at the suggestion of the growing user community, such as

  • Set/Clear/Invert bits/bytes/words
  • Reflect
  • Rotate (Left/Right with and without wrap)
  • ASCII input/display
  • Signed/Unsigned
  • a simple C code parser (simply driven by curiosity to implement something like this with Lex/Yacc)
  • the display of Windows error codes or similar in text form (although this can now be done more quickly using a search engine – as I said, the BitFummler has already had a few years of experience on its virtual silverback).
    Sometimes it is also helpful to display the #define associated with a value – a simple C header parser makes this possible.
  • Representation of the 32-bit value as a bit field – freely configurable
  • and much more

The BitFummler is available for download at heise.de.

Have fun—er, trying it out. Bug reports and feature requests are, of course, welcome.

Jürgen Welzenbach


Written by Jürgen Welzenbach

After studying electrical engineering in Erlangen, Jürgen completed his diploma thesis in cooperation with a manufacturer of ophthalmological devices and the University Eye Clinic.

He discovered embedded software in two Erlangen companies and primarily developed HMIs for construction machinery and laboratory analysis devices.


More articles

  • 26/02/2026
  • General, hardware, quality

According to the German Resuscitation Registry 2024, 370 people per day in Germany suffer a sudden cardiac arrest. That's over 136,000 cases per year, mostly occurring outside of hospitals. ...

Read more
  • 12/02/2026
  • General, hardware, mechanics, technology, testing, validation

How are sensors for cardiopulmonary resuscitation validated? In our case, we specifically asked this question for a sensor used to measure compression depth during resuscitation. Why is a CPR feedback sensor validated? ...

Read more
  • 05/02/2026
  • General, Hardware, Requirements Engineering, Software, Zephyr

What difference can a CPR feedback system make to cardiopulmonary resuscitation? In the event of cardiac arrest, the transport of oxygen to the body's cells stops immediately, leading to irreversible damage. The cells die. ...

Read more