Question

Is a bitwise Access Control List considered an Anti-pattern? I’m curious because I see this in an application I am working on and although it seems funny it kinda works, whats the general consensus. The downside I see in it is that it is hard to know what permission 8 is it would be easier to see “editor” or “manager”. But the bitwise approach seems to work on a technical level.

Answer 1

It saves storage space, and it’s used everywhere. It’s perfect for cases where you have one person who is both an “editor” and a “manager”, for example. And you shouldn’t have to remember what permission 8 is, you should have names that refer to those numbers that you define once and then don’t have to worry about.