[Chicken-users] Choosing between FFI approaches

[Peter BARABAS]

Hello,

I've seen different kinds of methods in writing FFIs:

A.)

(define db:unknown 5)

In this case the Scheme variable gets a concrete value (which is the
value of the C variable).

B.)

(define-foreign-type dbtype int)
(define-foreign-variable db:unknown dbtype DB_UNKNOWN (->string DB_UNKNOWN))
(define db:unknown DB_UNKOWN)

Here the Scheme variable gets its value from the C variable DB_UNKNOWN

This approach has more abstraction (though it can be even more
abstract with a simple macro) and is more resistant to changes in the
C library. Does it have any disadvantages? This second method seems a
bit better for me.

Thank you.

--
'(Yours parenthetically),
peter barabas.