NIF vs. Linked-in Drivers

[Evans, Matthew]

Hi,

Are there any guidelines as to the use of the new Erlang NIF vs. a linked-in port driver?

We have an application that needs to access C code, and are currently thinking (and have used in the past) a linked-in port driver. Under what situations would that approach be better than a NIF, and visa versa?

Also, we all know that a linked in driver can crash or lock the Erlang runtime system if the driver is poorly implemented. Do these risks still exist with NIFs?

Thanks

Matt