sub str_from_bits {
    my $vec = '';
    vec( $vec, $_, 1) = 1 for @_;
    $vec;
}

sub str_to_bits {
    my $vec = shift;
    grep vec( $vec, $_, 1), 0 .. 8*( length $vec);
}

##</code><code>##

my $vec = str_from_bits( 8, 1, 9);
my ( $lo, $hi) = ( vec( $vec, 0, 8), vec( $vec, 1, 8));
printf "lo: 0x%02x, hi: 0x%02x\n", $lo, $hi;