A better syntax for loops with geometric progressions like this would be obtained by modifying the syntax for writing arithmetic progressions (e.g. "a:b:c") by using a different separator symbol.

For example, if the separator for geometric progressions would be ":>", your loop example would become "for bit in 1:>128:>2". Another example of (non-ASCII) separator would be "for bit in 1⋮128⋮2"

Heh, hopefully not too often. First I thought this loops 128 times. Then 7 times. Then 8 times. Then I thought "undefined behavior" if bit is a uint8_t. But then I thought, I don't have freaking clue because I can't keep all of C's implicit casting and arithmetic operation rules in my head.