Frank Dalton wrote:

> Using a PIC, has anybody figured out a good
> way to take a number from zero to seven (0 to 7)
> and use it to generate the corresponding bit
> mask (i.e., 00000001, 00000010, 00000100, etc.)?

A look-up table is certainly (probably?) the fastest.
Here's a short looped version that doesn't trash W:

       CLRF    result
       INCF    count,F
       SETC

       RLF     result,F
       DECFSZ  count,F
        goto   $-2

Execution time is (7 + 4*count) cycles.

Scott