2011/12/14 Marc Feeley feeley@iro.umontreal.ca:
When a Scheme string is "converted" to a C string by the C-interface, it is a newly allocated object on the C heap. In other words, the object that C is receiving is unrelated to the Scheme object managed by the Gambit garbage-collector. The C string will *not* be moved around, but it does have a reference count which allows more control over the reclaiming of that string from the C side.
So there are two strings: one on the Scheme side and one on the C side. The one on the Scheme side probably does not have any Scheme references any more but has one reference coming from the C side.
Isn't this a bit much overhead to keep the string on the Scheme side, only to have a reference to the copy of the string on the C side?
And another question: if there are also references on the Scheme side to the string which get used to modify the string: will the C side know about the modification?
Example:
(let ((ident "A")) (openlog ident ...) (syslog "a") (set! ident "B") (syslog "b"))
Will the output be
A: a B: b
or
A: a A: b
?