Which is preferable?

midifile.cpp

static void WriteVariableLen(FILE *f, uint32 value)
{
	if (value < 0x7F) {
		byte tb = value;
		fwrite(&tb, 1, 1, f);
	} else if (value < 0x3FFF) {
		byte tb[2];
		tb[1] =  value & 0x7F;         value >>= 7;
		tb[0] = (value & 0x7F) | 0x80; value >>= 7;
		fwrite(tb, 1, sizeof(tb), f);
	} else if (value < 0x1FFFFF) {
		byte tb[3];
		tb[2] =  value & 0x7F;         value >>= 7;
		tb[1] = (value & 0x7F) | 0x80; value >>= 7;
		tb[0] = (value & 0x7F) | 0x80; value >>= 7;
		fwrite(tb, 1, sizeof(tb), f);
	} else if (value < 0x0FFFFFFF) {
		byte tb[4];
		tb[3] =  value & 0x7F;         value >>= 7;
		tb[2] = (value & 0x7F) | 0x80; value >>= 7;
		tb[1] = (value & 0x7F) | 0x80; value >>= 7;
		tb[0] = (value & 0x7F) | 0x80; value >>= 7;
		fwrite(tb, 1, sizeof(tb), f);
	}
}

static void WriteVariableLen(FILE *f, uint32 value)
{
	byte tb[4];
	tb[3] =  value & 0x7F;         value >>= 7;
	tb[2] = (value & 0x7F) | 0x80; value >>= 7;
	tb[1] = (value & 0x7F) | 0x80; value >>= 7;
	tb[0] = (value & 0x7F) | 0x80; value >>= 7;
	     if (tb[0] > 0) fwrite(tb + 0, 1, 4, f);
	else if (tb[1] > 0) fwrite(tb + 1, 1, 3, f);
	else if (tb[2] > 0) fwrite(tb + 2, 1, 2, f);
	else                fwrite(tb + 3, 1, 1, f);
}