LiveCode Builder: Passing buffer to foreign handler

[Dar Scott]

I'm using LiveCode 8.0.0 RC 1 on the Mac.  I'm tinkering with LiveCode Builder to make library extensions.

I want to pass a buffer pointer to a foreign handler, in a hardware vendor supplied dynamic library  Then I want to access the bytes/words in that buffer.

What's the best way to do this?  

I thought about building up a value of type data of the right length.  Is the data value contiguous?  Does it stay in one place?  Is the value allowed to change?  I think breaking equality is OK.  How do I get the pointer to the underlying first byte?  (MCDataGetBytePtr()?)  Or is a data ref automatically converted to pointer as needed?  

Or do I need to allocate my own memory?  Are any <builtin> functions are available to do this?  How do I get to the bytes after I make the call to the foreign function?  (MCMemoryAllocate()?)  

Is this noise on this list?  Should this question be elsewhere?  

Dar