Outcodes in Cohen-Sutherland Clipping Algorithm What advantages do the outcodes offer in this algorithm ? Do they help in simplifying the algorithm ? Do they decrease the number of calculations ?
The outcodes just represent four boolean flags as a bitfield. Codewise it is easier to move a bitfield around than four booleans. Functionality-wise it becomes very easy to check if any bits are set (just check if zero), and combining outcodes is as simple as a bitwise OR.

On a side-note: Since bit-operations are fast, it is not a performance issue that the individual bits need to be extracted (e.g. outcode &amp; BOTTOM).