FFI Addendum, RC3 & Open Issues

[Sven Panne]

Manuel M. T. Chakravarty wrote:
 > [...] * 3.2: Clarified the description of foreign types;

OK.

 > [...] * 4.1.5: New section discussing the traps & pitfalls of type
 > promotion with C bindings.

The section in itself is OK, but it's a bit annoying IMHO that one can't
write a portable foreign import for e.g. Unix' open, which has an optional
"mode" parameter. I fear we have to reconsider varargs somehow...

 > * 5.8: Clarified documentation for `MarshalAlloc.free'.
 > * 5.8: Added `MarshalAlloc.realloc'.

OK.

 > [...] * There is the open question, raised by SPJ, of whether we
 >   like to have something like
 >
 >     import_entity -> [String]
 >     export_entity -> [String]
 >
 >   See my message from yesterday.

I would vote for the change, but could live with the current state of affairs.

 > [ new "threadsafe" mode ]

Hmmm, I'm not so sure about this: Although it looks like something convenient,
is there a real *need* for it or could the same be achieved by using additional
(threading) library features? We should be aware of feature creep...

Cheers,
    S.