> C basically doesn't give you any way to address memory smaller than a char It ...

breadbox · on Nov 9, 2016

Or via the bitwise operators. Still, it is not possible to take the address of a bitfield.

boomlinde · on Nov 16, 2016

The difference may be 100% semantics, but when I am using a bit field, I am addressing the particular bits I am interested in via a name, and when I am shifting and masking bits, I am directly manipulating a piece of memory until its value represents the bits that I am interested in.