AL/ALC errors during ALUT functions

We are currently using the following AL/ALC functions in ALUT:

   alcOpenDevice
   alcCloseDevice
   alcCreateContext
   alcDestroyContext
   alcGetCurrentContext
   alcMakeContextCurrent
   alGenBuffers
   alBufferData

Most of these function can lead to an AL/ALC error and I think we should 
specify a uniform way of handling these errors. The problem is that it is not 
100% clear to me how to do this in a nice way. Questions arising are:

 * Should ALUT check for these errors itself? Probably yes, but this would 
involve calling al(c)GetError for some of those functions above, which in 
turn clears the global error state. This might disguise some AL/ALC errors 
which have already happened (we might add ALUT_ERROR_AL_ERROR_ON_ENTRY or 
something like that).

 * Should ALUT call al(c)GetError to clear the global error state before it 
calls any of those functions above? Probably yes, otherwise we might get some 
false positives.

 * Should the detected AL/ALC errors be mapped to ALUT errors?

 * Should we state as a general rule that *all* ALUT functions clear the 
global AL/ALC error state? Although not all ALUT functions use AL/ALC 
functions internally, a general rule would be preferable to keep things 
simple. If and which AL/ALC functions get called internally should probably 
be kept an implementation detail.

Any opinions and/or suggestions?

Cheers,
   S.