static char* itoa( int value, char* result, int base ) {
        // check that the base if valid
        if (base < 2 || base > 16) { *result = 0; return result; }

        char* out = result;
        int quotient = value;

        do {
                *out = "0123456789abcdef"[ std::abs( quotient % base ) ];
                ++out;
                quotient /= base;
        } while ( quotient );

        // Only apply negative sign for base 10
        if ( value < 0 && base == 10) *out++ = '-';
        std::reverse( result, out );
        *out = 0;

        return result;
}