def length=(l)
      byteLen = 0
      byteLen = (l-1)/8+1 if l > 0

      raise "Length adjustment would change size of underlying array" if byteLen != byteLength

      @length = l
    end
def length=(l)
      byteLen = 0
      byteLen = (l-1)/8+1 if l > 0

      raise "Length adjustment would change size of underlying array" if byteLen != byteLength

      @length = l
    end
Adjust the length of the bitfield. This might be necessary if we had to unserialize the bitfield from
 a serialized array of bytes.