driver_output_term() and unsigned long (32 bit) values

[Per Bergqvist]

> If I'm reading the source correctly, a driver can't send an unsigned
> 32-bit value back to Erlang.  It cannot send an arbitrary bignum,   
> either.  Is the former (or both) possible to include in R9 at this  
> late date?                                                          
                                                                      
Correct, there is no interface to create an arbitrary bignum but for  
an arbitrary ulong the ei_encode_ulong function does the work for you.
It will encode a small big if the ulong is larger than ERL_MAX.       
                                                                      
What kind of interface would you like to see for encoding arbitrary   
bignums ? (string -> bignum) ?                                        
                                                                      
>                                                                     
> For what it's worth, it doesn't appear possible to have the driver  
> create a reference and send that back to Erlang, either.            
>                                                                     
IMHO, I think it is a bad idea to allow a driver to create a reference
since references should be unique and it will be hard to guarantee    
uniqueness if there are several allocators ...                        
                                                                      
/Per