Building memory blocks in LyX

Question

I was wondering if it's possible to somehow create similar structures in LyX:

The colors does not mean to me, but to know how to create the cool structures will be great.

Tried to find similar threads but without any success. Also tried to read the tikz documentation to see if its possible to achieve it.

Answer 1

Very short approximation:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}

\newcommand\xoutofeight[2][black]{%
    \begin{tikzpicture}
        \pgfmathsetlengthmacro\xstep{.6cm}
        \pgfmathsetlengthmacro\ystep{\baselineskip}
        \fill[#1!40] (0,0) rectangle ({#2*\xstep},\ystep);
        \draw[#1,xstep=\xstep,ystep=\ystep] (0,0) grid ({8*\xstep},\ystep);
    \end{tikzpicture}}

\begin{document}
    short num: \xoutofeight{2}

    char* str: \xoutofeight{8}

    short num: \xoutofeight[green!80!black]{2}
\end{document}

Answer 2

Simple tabulars with xcolor and array can do that:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{array}
\usepackage[table, svgnames]{xcolor}

\begin{document}

    \begin{center}
\setlength{\arrayrulewidth}{1.5pt}
\begin{tabular}{|*{8}{p{0.5cm}|}}
  \hline
  \rowcolor{WhiteSmoke!60!Lavender}& & & & & & &\rule{0pt}{1.5cm} \\
  \hline
\end{tabular}\vskip 1cm

\begin{tabular}{|*{2}{>{\columncolor{WhiteSmoke!60!Lavender}}p{0.5cm}|}*{6}{p{0.5cm}|}}
  \hline
  & & & & & & &\rule{0pt}{1.5cm} \\
  \hline
\end{tabular} \end{center}

\end{document}