can get at the Raw Iron, if you are willing to write some non-standard
code at a more primitive level. You need not be “stuck” on
performance because of the implementation costs of Haskell's
-“high-level” features—you can always code “under” them. In an
-extreme case, you can write all your time-critical code in C, and then
-just glue it together with Haskell!
+“high-level” features—you can always code “under” them. In an extreme case, you can write all your time-critical code in C, and then just glue it together with Haskell!
</Para>
<Para>
</VarListEntry>
<VarListEntry>
-<Term>Calling out to C:</Term>
+<Term>Pattern guards</Term>
+<ListItem>
+<Para>
+Instead of being a boolean expression, a guard is a list of qualifiers, exactly as in a list comprehension. See <XRef LinkEnd="pattern-guards">.
+</Para>
+</ListItem>
+</VarListEntry>
+
+<VarListEntry>
+<Term>Foreign calling:</Term>
<ListItem>
<Para>
Just what it sounds like. We provide <Emphasis>lots</Emphasis> of rope that you
-can dangle around your neck. Please see <XRef LinkEnd="glasgow-ccalls">.
+can dangle around your neck. Please see <XRef LinkEnd="ffi">.
</Para>
</ListItem>
</VarListEntry>
</Para>
</ListItem>
</VarListEntry>
+
+<VarListEntry>
+<Term>Generic classes:</Term>
+<ListItem>
+<Para>
+Generic class declarations allow you to define a class
+whose methods say how to work over an arbitrary data type.
+Then it's really easy to make any new type into an instance of
+the class. This generalises the rather ad-hoc "deriving" feature
+of Haskell 98.
+Details in <XRef LinkEnd="generic-classes">.
+</Para>
+</ListItem>
+</VarListEntry>
</VariableList>
</Para>
<Para>
Before you get too carried away working at the lowest level (e.g.,
-sloshing <Literal>MutableByteArray#</Literal>s around your program), you may wish to
-check if there are system libraries that provide a “Haskellised
-veneer” over the features you want. See <XRef LinkEnd="ghc-prelude">.
+sloshing <Literal>MutableByteArray#</Literal>s around your
+program), you may wish to check if there are libraries that provide a
+“Haskellised veneer” over the features you want. See
+<xref linkend="book-hslibs">.
+</Para>
+
+ <sect1 id="options-language">
+ <title>Language options</title>
+
+ <indexterm><primary>language</primary><secondary>option</secondary>
+ </indexterm>
+ <indexterm><primary>options</primary><secondary>language</secondary>
+ </indexterm>
+ <indexterm><primary>extensions</primary><secondary>options controlling</secondary>
+ </indexterm>
+
+ <para> These flags control what variation of the language are
+ permitted. Leaving out all of them gives you standard Haskell
+ 98.</Para>
+
+ <variablelist>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>-fglasgow-exts</option>:</term>
+ <indexterm><primary><option>-fglasgow-exts</option></primary></indexterm>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>This simultaneously enables all of the extensions to
+ Haskell 98 described in <xref
+ linkend="ghc-language-features">, except where otherwise
+ noted. </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>-fno-monomorphism-restriction</option>:</term>
+ <indexterm><primary><option>-fno-monomorphism-restriction</option></primary></indexterm>
+ <listitem>
+ <para> Switch off the Haskell 98 monomorphism restriction.
+ Independent of the <Option>-fglasgow-exts</Option>
+ flag. </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>-fallow-overlapping-instances</option></term>
+ <term><option>-fallow-undecidable-instances</option></term>
+ <term><option>-fcontext-stack</option></term>
+ <indexterm><primary><option>-fallow-overlapping-instances</option></primary></indexterm>
+ <indexterm><primary><option>-fallow-undecidable-instances</option></primary></indexterm>
+ <indexterm><primary><option>-fcontext-stack</option></primary></indexterm>
+ <listitem>
+ <para> See <XRef LinkEnd="instance-decls">. Only relevant
+ if you also use <option>-fglasgow-exts</option>.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>-fignore-asserts</option>:</term>
+ <indexterm><primary><option>-fignore-asserts</option></primary></indexterm>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>See <XRef LinkEnd="sec-assertions">. Only relevant if
+ you also use <option>-fglasgow-exts</option>.</Para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>-finline-phase</option></term>
+ <indexterm><primary><option>-finline-phase</option></primary></indexterm>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>See <XRef LinkEnd="rewrite-rules">. Only relevant if
+ you also use <Option>-fglasgow-exts</Option>.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>-fgenerics</option></term>
+ <indexterm><primary><option>-fgenerics</option></primary></indexterm>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>See <XRef LinkEnd="generic-classes">. Independent of
+ <Option>-fglasgow-exts</Option>.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>-fno-implicit-prelude</option></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para><indexterm><primary>-fno-implicit-prelude
+ option</primary></indexterm> GHC normally imports
+ <filename>Prelude.hi</filename> files for you. If you'd
+ rather it didn't, then give it a
+ <option>-fno-implicit-prelude</option> option. The idea
+ is that you can then import a Prelude of your own. (But
+ don't call it <literal>Prelude</literal>; the Haskell
+ module namespace is flat, and you must not conflict with
+ any Prelude module.)</para>
+
+ <para>Even though you have not imported the Prelude, all
+ the built-in syntax still refers to the built-in Haskell
+ Prelude types and values, as specified by the Haskell
+ Report. For example, the type <literal>[Int]</literal>
+ still means <literal>Prelude.[] Int</literal>; tuples
+ continue to refer to the standard Prelude tuples; the
+ translation for list comprehensions continues to use
+ <literal>Prelude.map</literal> etc.</para>
+
+ <para> With one group of exceptions! You may want to
+ define your own numeric class hierarchy. It completely
+ defeats that purpose if the literal "1" means
+ "<literal>Prelude.fromInteger 1</literal>", which is what
+ the Haskell Report specifies. So the
+ <option>-fno-implicit-prelude</option> flag causes the
+ following pieces of built-in syntax to refer to whatever
+ is in scope, not the Prelude versions:</para>
+
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Integer and fractional literals mean
+ "<literal>fromInteger 1</literal>" and
+ "<literal>fromRational 3.2</literal>", not the
+ Prelude-qualified versions; both in expressions and in
+ patterns.</para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Negation (e.g. "<literal>- (f x)</literal>")
+ means "<literal>negate (f x)</literal>" (not
+ <literal>Prelude.negate</literal>).</para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>In an n+k pattern, the standard Prelude
+ <literal>Ord</literal> class is used for comparison,
+ but the necessary subtraction uses whatever
+ "<literal>(-)</literal>" is in scope (not
+ "<literal>Prelude.(-)</literal>").</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ </variablelist>
+ </sect1>
+
+<Sect1 id="primitives">
+<Title>Unboxed types and primitive operations
+</Title>
+<IndexTerm><Primary>PrelGHC module</Primary></IndexTerm>
+
+<Para>
+This module defines all the types which are primitive in Glasgow
+Haskell, and the operations provided for them.
</Para>
-<Sect1 id="glasgow-unboxed">
+<Sect2 id="glasgow-unboxed">
<Title>Unboxed types
</Title>
<IndexTerm><Primary>Unboxed types (Glasgow extension)</Primary></IndexTerm>
</Para>
+<para>Most types in GHC are <firstterm>boxed</firstterm>, which means
+that values of that type are represented by a pointer to a heap
+object. The representation of a Haskell <literal>Int</literal>, for
+example, is a two-word heap object. An <firstterm>unboxed</firstterm>
+type, however, is represented by the value itself, no pointers or heap
+allocation are involved.
+</para>
+
+<Para>
+Unboxed types correspond to the “raw machine” types you
+would use in C: <Literal>Int#</Literal> (long int),
+<Literal>Double#</Literal> (double), <Literal>Addr#</Literal>
+(void *), etc. The <Emphasis>primitive operations</Emphasis>
+(PrimOps) on these types are what you might expect; e.g.,
+<Literal>(+#)</Literal> is addition on
+<Literal>Int#</Literal>s, and is the machine-addition that we all
+know and love—usually one instruction.
+</Para>
+
+<Para>
+Primitive (unboxed) types cannot be defined in Haskell, and are
+therefore built into the language and compiler. Primitive types are
+always unlifted; that is, a value of a primitive type cannot be
+bottom. We use the convention that primitive types, values, and
+operations have a <Literal>#</Literal> suffix.
+</Para>
+
+<Para>
+Primitive values are often represented by a simple bit-pattern, such
+as <Literal>Int#</Literal>, <Literal>Float#</Literal>,
+<Literal>Double#</Literal>. But this is not necessarily the case:
+a primitive value might be represented by a pointer to a
+heap-allocated object. Examples include
+<Literal>Array#</Literal>, the type of primitive arrays. A
+primitive array is heap-allocated because it is too big a value to fit
+in a register, and would be too expensive to copy around; in a sense,
+it is accidental that it is represented by a pointer. If a pointer
+represents a primitive value, then it really does point to that value:
+no unevaluated thunks, no indirections…nothing can be at the
+other end of the pointer than the primitive value.
+</Para>
+
+<Para>
+There are some restrictions on the use of primitive types, the main
+one being that you can't pass a primitive value to a polymorphic
+function or store one in a polymorphic data type. This rules out
+things like <Literal>[Int#]</Literal> (i.e. lists of primitive
+integers). The reason for this restriction is that polymorphic
+arguments and constructor fields are assumed to be pointers: if an
+unboxed integer is stored in one of these, the garbage collector would
+attempt to follow it, leading to unpredictable space leaks. Or a
+<Function>seq</Function> operation on the polymorphic component may
+attempt to dereference the pointer, with disastrous results. Even
+worse, the unboxed value might be larger than a pointer
+(<Literal>Double#</Literal> for instance).
+</Para>
+
<Para>
-These types correspond to the “raw machine” types you would use in
-C: <Literal>Int#</Literal> (long int), <Literal>Double#</Literal> (double), <Literal>Addr#</Literal> (void *), etc. The
-<Emphasis>primitive operations</Emphasis> (PrimOps) on these types are what you
-might expect; e.g., <Literal>(+#)</Literal> is addition on <Literal>Int#</Literal>s, and is the
-machine-addition that we all know and love—usually one instruction.
+Nevertheless, A numerically-intensive program using unboxed types can
+go a <Emphasis>lot</Emphasis> faster than its “standard”
+counterpart—we saw a threefold speedup on one example.
</Para>
+</sect2>
+
+<Sect2 id="unboxed-tuples">
+<Title>Unboxed Tuples
+</Title>
+
<Para>
-There are some restrictions on the use of unboxed types, the main one
-being that you can't pass an unboxed value to a polymorphic function
-or store one in a polymorphic data type. This rules out things like
-<Literal>[Int#]</Literal> (i.e. lists of unboxed integers). The reason for this
-restriction is that polymorphic arguments and constructor fields are
-assumed to be pointers: if an unboxed integer is stored in one of
-these, the garbage collector would attempt to follow it, leading to
-unpredictable space leaks. Or a <Function>seq</Function> operation on the polymorphic
-component may attempt to dereference the pointer, with disastrous
-results. Even worse, the unboxed value might be larger than a pointer
-(<Literal>Double#</Literal> for instance).
+Unboxed tuples aren't really exported by <Literal>PrelGHC</Literal>,
+they're available by default with <Option>-fglasgow-exts</Option>. An
+unboxed tuple looks like this:
</Para>
<Para>
-Nevertheless, A numerically-intensive program using unboxed types can
-go a <Emphasis>lot</Emphasis> faster than its “standard” counterpart—we saw a
-threefold speedup on one example.
+
+<ProgramListing>
+(# e_1, ..., e_n #)
+</ProgramListing>
+
</Para>
<Para>
-Please see <XRef LinkEnd="ghc-libs-ghc"> for the details of unboxed types and the
-operations on them.
+where <Literal>e_1..e_n</Literal> are expressions of any
+type (primitive or non-primitive). The type of an unboxed tuple looks
+the same.
</Para>
-</Sect1>
+<Para>
+Unboxed tuples are used for functions that need to return multiple
+values, but they avoid the heap allocation normally associated with
+using fully-fledged tuples. When an unboxed tuple is returned, the
+components are put directly into registers or on the stack; the
+unboxed tuple itself does not have a composite representation. Many
+of the primitive operations listed in this section return unboxed
+tuples.
+</Para>
-<Sect1 id="glasgow-ST-monad">
-<Title>Primitive state-transformer monad
-</Title>
+<Para>
+There are some pretty stringent restrictions on the use of unboxed tuples:
+</Para>
<Para>
-<IndexTerm><Primary>state transformers (Glasgow extensions)</Primary></IndexTerm>
-<IndexTerm><Primary>ST monad (Glasgow extension)</Primary></IndexTerm>
+
+<ItemizedList>
+<ListItem>
+
+<Para>
+ Unboxed tuple types are subject to the same restrictions as
+other unboxed types; i.e. they may not be stored in polymorphic data
+structures or passed to polymorphic functions.
+
</Para>
+</ListItem>
+<ListItem>
<Para>
-This monad underlies our implementation of arrays, mutable and
-immutable, and our implementation of I/O, including “C calls”.
+ Unboxed tuples may only be constructed as the direct result of
+a function, and may only be deconstructed with a <Literal>case</Literal> expression.
+eg. the following are valid:
+
+
+<ProgramListing>
+f x y = (# x+1, y-1 #)
+g x = case f x x of { (# a, b #) -> a + b }
+</ProgramListing>
+
+
+but the following are invalid:
+
+
+<ProgramListing>
+f x y = g (# x, y #)
+g (# x, y #) = x + y
+</ProgramListing>
+
+
</Para>
+</ListItem>
+<ListItem>
<Para>
-The <Literal>ST</Literal> library, which provides access to the <Function>ST</Function> monad, is a
-GHC/Hugs extension library and is described in the separate <ULink
-URL="libs.html"
->GHC/Hugs Extension Libraries</ULink
-> document.
+ No variable can have an unboxed tuple type. This is illegal:
+
+
+<ProgramListing>
+f :: (# Int, Int #) -> (# Int, Int #)
+f x = x
+</ProgramListing>
+
+
+because <VarName>x</VarName> has an unboxed tuple type.
+
</Para>
+</ListItem>
-</Sect1>
+</ItemizedList>
-<Sect1 id="glasgow-prim-arrays">
-<Title>Primitive arrays, mutable and otherwise
-</Title>
+</Para>
<Para>
-<IndexTerm><Primary>primitive arrays (Glasgow extension)</Primary></IndexTerm>
-<IndexTerm><Primary>arrays, primitive (Glasgow extension)</Primary></IndexTerm>
+Note: we may relax some of these restrictions in the future.
</Para>
<Para>
-GHC knows about quite a few flavours of Large Swathes of Bytes.
+The <Literal>IO</Literal> and <Literal>ST</Literal> monads use unboxed
+tuples to avoid unnecessary allocation during sequences of operations.
</Para>
+</Sect2>
+
+<Sect2>
+<Title>Character and numeric types</Title>
+
+<IndexTerm><Primary>character types, primitive</Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary>numeric types, primitive</Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary>integer types, primitive</Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary>floating point types, primitive</Primary></IndexTerm>
<Para>
-First, GHC distinguishes between primitive arrays of (boxed) Haskell
-objects (type <Literal>Array# obj</Literal>) and primitive arrays of bytes (type
-<Literal>ByteArray#</Literal>).
+There are the following obvious primitive types:
</Para>
+<ProgramListing>
+type Char#
+type Int#
+type Word#
+type Addr#
+type Float#
+type Double#
+type Int64#
+type Word64#
+</ProgramListing>
+
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>Char#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>Int#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>Word#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>Addr#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>Float#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>Double#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>Int64#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>Word64#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+
<Para>
-Second, it distinguishes between…
-<VariableList>
+If you really want to know their exact equivalents in C, see
+<Filename>ghc/includes/StgTypes.h</Filename> in the GHC source tree.
+</Para>
-<VarListEntry>
-<Term>Immutable:</Term>
-<ListItem>
<Para>
-Arrays that do not change (as with “standard” Haskell arrays); you
-can only read from them. Obviously, they do not need the care and
-attention of the state-transformer monad.
+Literals for these types may be written as follows:
</Para>
-</ListItem>
-</VarListEntry>
-<VarListEntry>
-<Term>Mutable:</Term>
-<ListItem>
+
<Para>
-Arrays that may be changed or “mutated.” All the operations on them
-live within the state-transformer monad and the updates happen
-<Emphasis>in-place</Emphasis>.
+
+<ProgramListing>
+1# an Int#
+1.2# a Float#
+1.34## a Double#
+'a'# a Char#; for weird characters, use e.g. '\o<octal>'#
+"a"# an Addr# (a `char *'); only characters '\0'..'\255' allowed
+</ProgramListing>
+
+<IndexTerm><Primary>literals, primitive</Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary>constants, primitive</Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary>numbers, primitive</Primary></IndexTerm>
</Para>
-</ListItem>
-</VarListEntry>
-<VarListEntry>
-<Term>“Static” (in C land):</Term>
-<ListItem>
+
+</Sect2>
+
+<Sect2>
+<Title>Comparison operations</Title>
+
<Para>
-A C routine may pass an <Literal>Addr#</Literal> pointer back into Haskell land. There
-are then primitive operations with which you may merrily grab values
-over in C land, by indexing off the “static” pointer.
+<IndexTerm><Primary>comparisons, primitive</Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary>operators, comparison</Primary></IndexTerm>
</Para>
-</ListItem>
-</VarListEntry>
-<VarListEntry>
-<Term>“Stable” pointers:</Term>
-<ListItem>
+
<Para>
-If, for some reason, you wish to hand a Haskell pointer (i.e.,
-<Emphasis>not</Emphasis> an unboxed value) to a C routine, you first make the
-pointer “stable,” so that the garbage collector won't forget that it
-exists. That is, GHC provides a safe way to pass Haskell pointers to
-C.
+
+<ProgramListing>
+{>,>=,==,/=,<,<=}# :: Int# -> Int# -> Bool
+
+{gt,ge,eq,ne,lt,le}Char# :: Char# -> Char# -> Bool
+ -- ditto for Word# and Addr#
+</ProgramListing>
+
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>>#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>>=#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>==#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>/=#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal><#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal><=#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>gt{Char,Word,Addr}#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>ge{Char,Word,Addr}#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>eq{Char,Word,Addr}#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>ne{Char,Word,Addr}#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>lt{Char,Word,Addr}#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>le{Char,Word,Addr}#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
</Para>
+</Sect2>
+
+<Sect2>
+<Title>Primitive-character operations</Title>
+
<Para>
-Please see <XRef LinkEnd="glasgow-stablePtrs"> for more details.
+<IndexTerm><Primary>characters, primitive operations</Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary>operators, primitive character</Primary></IndexTerm>
</Para>
-</ListItem>
-</VarListEntry>
-<VarListEntry>
-<Term>“Foreign objects”:</Term>
-<ListItem>
+
<Para>
-A “foreign object” is a safe way to pass an external object (a
-C-allocated pointer, say) to Haskell and have Haskell do the Right
-Thing when it no longer references the object. So, for example, C
-could pass a large bitmap over to Haskell and say “please free this
-memory when you're done with it.”
+
+<ProgramListing>
+ord# :: Char# -> Int#
+chr# :: Int# -> Char#
+</ProgramListing>
+
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>ord#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>chr#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
</Para>
+</Sect2>
+
+<Sect2>
+<Title>Primitive-<Literal>Int</Literal> operations</Title>
+
<Para>
-Please see <XRef LinkEnd="glasgow-foreignObjs"> for more details.
+<IndexTerm><Primary>integers, primitive operations</Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary>operators, primitive integer</Primary></IndexTerm>
</Para>
-</ListItem>
-</VarListEntry>
-</VariableList>
+
+<Para>
+
+<ProgramListing>
+{+,-,*,quotInt,remInt,gcdInt}# :: Int# -> Int# -> Int#
+negateInt# :: Int# -> Int#
+
+iShiftL#, iShiftRA#, iShiftRL# :: Int# -> Int# -> Int#
+ -- shift left, right arithmetic, right logical
+
+addIntC#, subIntC#, mulIntC# :: Int# -> Int# -> (# Int#, Int# #)
+ -- add, subtract, multiply with carry
+</ProgramListing>
+
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>+#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>-#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>*#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>quotInt#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>remInt#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>gcdInt#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>iShiftL#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>iShiftRA#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>iShiftRL#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>addIntC#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>subIntC#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>mulIntC#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary>shift operations, integer</Primary></IndexTerm>
</Para>
<Para>
-The libraries section gives more details on all these “primitive
-array” types and the operations on them, <XRef LinkEnd="ghc-prelude">. Some of these extensions
-are also supported by Hugs, and the supporting libraries are described
-in the <ULink
-URL="libs.html"
->GHC/Hugs Extension Libraries</ULink
->
-document.
+<Emphasis>Note:</Emphasis> No error/overflow checking!
</Para>
-</Sect1>
+</Sect2>
-<Sect1 id="glasgow-ccalls">
-<Title>Calling C directly from Haskell
-</Title>
+<Sect2>
+<Title>Primitive-<Literal>Double</Literal> and <Literal>Float</Literal> operations</Title>
<Para>
-<IndexTerm><Primary>C calls (Glasgow extension)</Primary></IndexTerm>
-<IndexTerm><Primary>_ccall_ (Glasgow extension)</Primary></IndexTerm>
-<IndexTerm><Primary>_casm_ (Glasgow extension)</Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary>floating point numbers, primitive</Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary>operators, primitive floating point</Primary></IndexTerm>
</Para>
<Para>
-GOOD ADVICE: Because this stuff is not Entirely Stable as far as names
-and things go, you would be well-advised to keep your C-callery
-corraled in a few modules, rather than sprinkled all over your code.
-It will then be quite easy to update later on.
+
+<ProgramListing>
+{+,-,*,/}## :: Double# -> Double# -> Double#
+{<,<=,==,/=,>=,>}## :: Double# -> Double# -> Bool
+negateDouble# :: Double# -> Double#
+double2Int# :: Double# -> Int#
+int2Double# :: Int# -> Double#
+
+{plus,minux,times,divide}Float# :: Float# -> Float# -> Float#
+{gt,ge,eq,ne,lt,le}Float# :: Float# -> Float# -> Bool
+negateFloat# :: Float# -> Float#
+float2Int# :: Float# -> Int#
+int2Float# :: Int# -> Float#
+</ProgramListing>
+
</Para>
-<Sect2 id="ccall-intro">
-<Title><Function>_ccall_</Function> and <Function>_casm_</Function>: an introduction
-</Title>
+<Para>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>+##</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>-##</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>*##</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>/##</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal><##</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal><=##</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>==##</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>=/##</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>>=##</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>>##</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>negateDouble#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>double2Int#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>int2Double#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+</Para>
+
+<Para>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>plusFloat#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>minusFloat#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>timesFloat#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>divideFloat#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>gtFloat#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>geFloat#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>eqFloat#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>neFloat#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>ltFloat#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>leFloat#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>negateFloat#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>float2Int#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>int2Float#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+</Para>
+
+<Para>
+And a full complement of trigonometric functions:
+</Para>
+
+<Para>
+
+<ProgramListing>
+expDouble# :: Double# -> Double#
+logDouble# :: Double# -> Double#
+sqrtDouble# :: Double# -> Double#
+sinDouble# :: Double# -> Double#
+cosDouble# :: Double# -> Double#
+tanDouble# :: Double# -> Double#
+asinDouble# :: Double# -> Double#
+acosDouble# :: Double# -> Double#
+atanDouble# :: Double# -> Double#
+sinhDouble# :: Double# -> Double#
+coshDouble# :: Double# -> Double#
+tanhDouble# :: Double# -> Double#
+powerDouble# :: Double# -> Double# -> Double#
+</ProgramListing>
+
+<IndexTerm><Primary>trigonometric functions, primitive</Primary></IndexTerm>
+</Para>
+
+<Para>
+similarly for <Literal>Float#</Literal>.
+</Para>
<Para>
-The simplest way to use a simple C function
+There are two coercion functions for <Literal>Float#</Literal>/<Literal>Double#</Literal>:
</Para>
<Para>
<ProgramListing>
-double fooC( FILE *in, char c, int i, double d, unsigned int u )
+float2Double# :: Float# -> Double#
+double2Float# :: Double# -> Float#
</ProgramListing>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>float2Double#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>double2Float#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+</Para>
+
+<Para>
+The primitive version of <Function>decodeDouble</Function>
+(<Function>encodeDouble</Function> is implemented as an external C
+function):
</Para>
<Para>
-is to provide a Haskell wrapper:
+
+<ProgramListing>
+decodeDouble# :: Double# -> PrelNum.ReturnIntAndGMP
+</ProgramListing>
+
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>encodeDouble#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>decodeDouble#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+</Para>
+
+<Para>
+(And the same for <Literal>Float#</Literal>s.)
+</Para>
+
+</Sect2>
+
+<Sect2 id="integer-operations">
+<Title>Operations on/for <Literal>Integers</Literal> (interface to GMP)
+</Title>
+
+<Para>
+<IndexTerm><Primary>arbitrary precision integers</Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary>Integer, operations on</Primary></IndexTerm>
+</Para>
+
+<Para>
+We implement <Literal>Integers</Literal> (arbitrary-precision
+integers) using the GNU multiple-precision (GMP) package (version
+2.0.2).
+</Para>
+
+<Para>
+The data type for <Literal>Integer</Literal> is either a small
+integer, represented by an <Literal>Int</Literal>, or a large integer
+represented using the pieces required by GMP's
+<Literal>MP_INT</Literal> in <Filename>gmp.h</Filename> (see
+<Filename>gmp.info</Filename> in
+<Filename>ghc/includes/runtime/gmp</Filename>). It comes out as:
+</Para>
+
+<Para>
+
+<ProgramListing>
+data Integer = S# Int# -- small integers
+ | J# Int# ByteArray# -- large integers
+</ProgramListing>
+
+<IndexTerm><Primary>Integer type</Primary></IndexTerm> The primitive
+ops to support large <Literal>Integers</Literal> use the
+“pieces” of the representation, and are as follows:
</Para>
<Para>
<ProgramListing>
-fooH :: Char -> Int -> Double -> Word -> IO Double
-fooH c i d w = _ccall_ fooC (“stdin”::Addr) c i d w
+negateInteger# :: Int# -> ByteArray# -> Integer
+
+{plus,minus,times}Integer#, gcdInteger#,
+ quotInteger#, remInteger#, divExactInteger#
+ :: Int# -> ByteArray#
+ -> Int# -> ByteArray#
+ -> (# Int#, ByteArray# #)
+
+cmpInteger#
+ :: Int# -> ByteArray#
+ -> Int# -> ByteArray#
+ -> Int# -- -1 for <; 0 for ==; +1 for >
+
+cmpIntegerInt#
+ :: Int# -> ByteArray#
+ -> Int#
+ -> Int# -- -1 for <; 0 for ==; +1 for >
+
+gcdIntegerInt# ::
+ :: Int# -> ByteArray#
+ -> Int#
+ -> Int#
+
+divModInteger#, quotRemInteger#
+ :: Int# -> ByteArray#
+ -> Int# -> ByteArray#
+ -> (# Int#, ByteArray#,
+ Int#, ByteArray# #)
+
+integer2Int# :: Int# -> ByteArray# -> Int#
+
+int2Integer# :: Int# -> Integer -- NB: no error-checking on these two!
+word2Integer# :: Word# -> Integer
+
+addr2Integer# :: Addr# -> Integer
+ -- the Addr# is taken to be a `char *' string
+ -- to be converted into an Integer.
</ProgramListing>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>negateInteger#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>plusInteger#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>minusInteger#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>timesInteger#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>quotInteger#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>remInteger#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>gcdInteger#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>gcdIntegerInt#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>divExactInteger#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>cmpInteger#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>divModInteger#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>quotRemInteger#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>integer2Int#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>int2Integer#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>word2Integer#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>addr2Integer#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
</Para>
+</Sect2>
+
+<Sect2>
+<Title>Words and addresses</Title>
+
<Para>
-The function <Function>fooH</Function> unbox all of its arguments, call the C
-function <Function>fooC</Function> and box the corresponding arguments.
+<IndexTerm><Primary>word, primitive type</Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary>address, primitive type</Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary>unsigned integer, primitive type</Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary>pointer, primitive type</Primary></IndexTerm>
</Para>
<Para>
-One of the annoyances about <Function>_ccall_</Function>s is when the C types don't quite
-match the Haskell compiler's ideas. For this, the <Function>_casm_</Function> variant
-may be just the ticket (NB: <Emphasis>no chance</Emphasis> of such code going
-through a native-code generator):
+A <Literal>Word#</Literal> is used for bit-twiddling operations.
+It is the same size as an <Literal>Int#</Literal>, but has no sign
+nor any arithmetic operations.
+
+<ProgramListing>
+type Word# -- Same size/etc as Int# but *unsigned*
+type Addr# -- A pointer from outside the "Haskell world" (from C, probably);
+ -- described under "arrays"
+</ProgramListing>
+
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>Word#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>Addr#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+</Para>
+
+<Para>
+<Literal>Word#</Literal>s and <Literal>Addr#</Literal>s have
+the usual comparison operations. Other
+unboxed-<Literal>Word</Literal> ops (bit-twiddling and coercions):
</Para>
<Para>
<ProgramListing>
-import Addr
-import CString
+{gt,ge,eq,ne,lt,le}Word# :: Word# -> Word# -> Bool
+
+and#, or#, xor# :: Word# -> Word# -> Word#
+ -- standard bit ops.
+
+quotWord#, remWord# :: Word# -> Word# -> Word#
+ -- word (i.e. unsigned) versions are different from int
+ -- versions, so we have to provide these explicitly.
+
+not# :: Word# -> Word#
+
+shiftL#, shiftRL# :: Word# -> Int# -> Word#
+ -- shift left, right logical
+
+int2Word# :: Int# -> Word# -- just a cast, really
+word2Int# :: Word# -> Int#
+</ProgramListing>
+
+<IndexTerm><Primary>bit operations, Word and Addr</Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>gtWord#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>geWord#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>eqWord#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>neWord#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>ltWord#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>leWord#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>and#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>or#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>xor#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>not#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>quotWord#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>remWord#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>shiftL#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>shiftRA#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>shiftRL#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>int2Word#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>word2Int#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+</Para>
+
+<Para>
+Unboxed-<Literal>Addr</Literal> ops (C casts, really):
+
+<ProgramListing>
+{gt,ge,eq,ne,lt,le}Addr# :: Addr# -> Addr# -> Bool
+
+int2Addr# :: Int# -> Addr#
+addr2Int# :: Addr# -> Int#
+addr2Integer# :: Addr# -> (# Int#, ByteArray# #)
+</ProgramListing>
+
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>gtAddr#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>geAddr#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>eqAddr#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>neAddr#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>ltAddr#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>leAddr#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>int2Addr#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>addr2Int#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>addr2Integer#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+</Para>
+
+<Para>
+The casts between <Literal>Int#</Literal>,
+<Literal>Word#</Literal> and <Literal>Addr#</Literal>
+correspond to null operations at the machine level, but are required
+to keep the Haskell type checker happy.
+</Para>
-oldGetEnv name
- = _casm_ “%r = getenv((char *) %0);” name >>= \ litstring ->
- return (
- if (litstring == nullAddr) then
- Left ("Fail:oldGetEnv:"++name)
- else
- Right (unpackCString litstring)
- )
+<Para>
+Operations for indexing off of C pointers
+(<Literal>Addr#</Literal>s) to snatch values are listed under
+“arrays”.
+</Para>
+
+</Sect2>
+
+<Sect2>
+<Title>Arrays</Title>
+
+<Para>
+<IndexTerm><Primary>arrays, primitive</Primary></IndexTerm>
+</Para>
+
+<Para>
+The type <Literal>Array# elt</Literal> is the type of primitive,
+unpointed arrays of values of type <Literal>elt</Literal>.
+</Para>
+
+<Para>
+
+<ProgramListing>
+type Array# elt
</ProgramListing>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>Array#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+</Para>
+
+<Para>
+<Literal>Array#</Literal> is more primitive than a Haskell
+array—indeed, the Haskell <Literal>Array</Literal> interface is
+implemented using <Literal>Array#</Literal>—in that an
+<Literal>Array#</Literal> is indexed only by
+<Literal>Int#</Literal>s, starting at zero. It is also more
+primitive by virtue of being unboxed. That doesn't mean that it isn't
+a heap-allocated object—of course, it is. Rather, being unboxed
+means that it is represented by a pointer to the array itself, and not
+to a thunk which will evaluate to the array (or to bottom). The
+components of an <Literal>Array#</Literal> are themselves boxed.
+</Para>
+
+<Para>
+The type <Literal>ByteArray#</Literal> is similar to
+<Literal>Array#</Literal>, except that it contains just a string
+of (non-pointer) bytes.
</Para>
<Para>
-The first literal-literal argument to a <Function>_casm_</Function> is like a <Function>printf</Function>
-format: <Literal>%r</Literal> is replaced with the “result,” <Literal>%0</Literal>–<Literal>%n-1</Literal> are
-replaced with the 1st–nth arguments. As you can see above, it is an
-easy way to do simple C casting. Everything said about <Function>_ccall_</Function> goes
-for <Function>_casm_</Function> as well.
+
+<ProgramListing>
+type ByteArray#
+</ProgramListing>
+
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>ByteArray#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
</Para>
<Para>
-The use of <Function>_casm_</Function> in your code does pose a problem to the compiler
-when it comes to generating an interface file for a freshly compiled
-module. Included in an interface file is the unfolding (if any) of a
-declaration. However, if a declaration's unfolding happens to contain
-a <Function>_casm_</Function>, its unfolding will <Emphasis>not</Emphasis> be emitted into the interface
-file even if it qualifies by all the other criteria. The reason why
-the compiler prevents this from happening is that unfolding <Function>_casm_</Function>s
-into an interface file unduly constrains how code that import your
-module have to be compiled. If an imported declaration is unfolded and
-it contains a <Function>_casm_</Function>, you now have to be using a compiler backend
-capable of dealing with it (i.e., the C compiler backend). If you are
-using the C compiler backend, the unfolded <Function>_casm_</Function> may still cause you
-problems since the C code snippet it contains may mention CPP symbols
-that were in scope when compiling the original module are not when
-compiling the importing module.
+Arrays of these types are useful when a Haskell program wishes to
+construct a value to pass to a C procedure. It is also possible to use
+them to build (say) arrays of unboxed characters for internal use in a
+Haskell program. Given these uses, <Literal>ByteArray#</Literal>
+is deliberately a bit vague about the type of its components.
+Operations are provided to extract values of type
+<Literal>Char#</Literal>, <Literal>Int#</Literal>,
+<Literal>Float#</Literal>, <Literal>Double#</Literal>, and
+<Literal>Addr#</Literal> from arbitrary offsets within a
+<Literal>ByteArray#</Literal>. (For type
+<Literal>Foo#</Literal>, the $i$th offset gets you the $i$th
+<Literal>Foo#</Literal>, not the <Literal>Foo#</Literal> at
+byte-position $i$. Mumble.) (If you want a
+<Literal>Word#</Literal>, grab an <Literal>Int#</Literal>,
+then coerce it.)
</Para>
<Para>
-If you're willing to put up with the drawbacks of doing cross-module
-inlining of C code (GHC - A Better C Compiler :-), the option
-<Option>-funfold-casms-in-hi-file</Option> will turn off the default behaviour.
-<IndexTerm><Primary>-funfold-casms-in-hi-file option</Primary></IndexTerm>
+Lastly, we have static byte-arrays, of type
+<Literal>Addr#</Literal> [mentioned previously]. (Remember
+the duality between arrays and pointers in C.) Arrays of this types
+are represented by a pointer to an array in the world outside Haskell,
+so this pointer is not followed by the garbage collector. In other
+respects they are just like <Literal>ByteArray#</Literal>. They
+are only needed in order to pass values from C to Haskell.
</Para>
</Sect2>
-<Sect2 id="glasgow-literal-literals">
-<Title>Literal-literals</Title>
+<Sect2>
+<Title>Reading and writing</Title>
+
+<Para>
+Primitive arrays are linear, and indexed starting at zero.
+</Para>
+
+<Para>
+The size and indices of a <Literal>ByteArray#</Literal>, <Literal>Addr#</Literal>, and
+<Literal>MutableByteArray#</Literal> are all in bytes. It's up to the program to
+calculate the correct byte offset from the start of the array. This
+allows a <Literal>ByteArray#</Literal> to contain a mixture of values of different
+type, which is often needed when preparing data for and unpicking
+results from C. (Umm…not true of indices…WDP 95/09)
+</Para>
+
+<Para>
+<Emphasis>Should we provide some <Literal>sizeOfDouble#</Literal> constants?</Emphasis>
+</Para>
<Para>
-<IndexTerm><Primary>Literal-literals</Primary></IndexTerm>
-The literal-literal argument to <Function>_casm_</Function> can be made use of separately
-from the <Function>_casm_</Function> construct itself. Indeed, we've already used it:
+Out-of-range errors on indexing should be caught by the code which
+uses the primitive operation; the primitive operations themselves do
+<Emphasis>not</Emphasis> check for out-of-range indexes. The intention is that the
+primitive ops compile to one machine instruction or thereabouts.
</Para>
<Para>
+We use the terms “reading” and “writing” to refer to accessing
+<Emphasis>mutable</Emphasis> arrays (see <XRef LinkEnd="sect-mutable">), and
+“indexing” to refer to reading a value from an <Emphasis>immutable</Emphasis>
+array.
+</Para>
+
+<Para>
+Immutable byte arrays are straightforward to index (all indices in bytes):
<ProgramListing>
-fooH :: Char -> Int -> Double -> Word -> IO Double
-fooH c i d w = _ccall_ fooC (“stdin”::Addr) c i d w
+indexCharArray# :: ByteArray# -> Int# -> Char#
+indexIntArray# :: ByteArray# -> Int# -> Int#
+indexAddrArray# :: ByteArray# -> Int# -> Addr#
+indexFloatArray# :: ByteArray# -> Int# -> Float#
+indexDoubleArray# :: ByteArray# -> Int# -> Double#
+
+indexCharOffAddr# :: Addr# -> Int# -> Char#
+indexIntOffAddr# :: Addr# -> Int# -> Int#
+indexFloatOffAddr# :: Addr# -> Int# -> Float#
+indexDoubleOffAddr# :: Addr# -> Int# -> Double#
+indexAddrOffAddr# :: Addr# -> Int# -> Addr#
+ -- Get an Addr# from an Addr# offset
</ProgramListing>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>indexCharArray#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>indexIntArray#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>indexAddrArray#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>indexFloatArray#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>indexDoubleArray#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>indexCharOffAddr#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>indexIntOffAddr#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>indexFloatOffAddr#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>indexDoubleOffAddr#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>indexAddrOffAddr#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
</Para>
<Para>
-The first argument that's passed to <Function>fooC</Function> is given as a literal-literal,
-that is, a literal chunk of C code that will be inserted into the generated
-<Filename>.hc</Filename> code at the right place.
+The last of these, <Function>indexAddrOffAddr#</Function>, extracts an <Literal>Addr#</Literal> using an offset
+from another <Literal>Addr#</Literal>, thereby providing the ability to follow a chain of
+C pointers.
</Para>
<Para>
-A literal-literal is restricted to having a type that's an instance of
-the <Literal>CCallable</Literal> class, see <XRef LinkEnd="ccall-gotchas">
-for more information.
+Something a bit more interesting goes on when indexing arrays of boxed
+objects, because the result is simply the boxed object. So presumably
+it should be entered—we never usually return an unevaluated
+object! This is a pain: primitive ops aren't supposed to do
+complicated things like enter objects. The current solution is to
+return a single element unboxed tuple (see <XRef LinkEnd="unboxed-tuples">).
</Para>
<Para>
-Notice that literal-literals are by their very nature unfriendly to
-native code generators, so exercise judgement about whether or not to
-make use of them in your code.
+
+<ProgramListing>
+indexArray# :: Array# elt -> Int# -> (# elt #)
+</ProgramListing>
+
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>indexArray#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
</Para>
</Sect2>
-<Sect2 id="glasgow-foreign-headers">
-<Title>Using function headers
-</Title>
+<Sect2>
+<Title>The state type</Title>
<Para>
-<IndexTerm><Primary>C calls, function headers</Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>state, primitive type</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>State#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
</Para>
<Para>
-When generating C (using the <Option>-fvia-C</Option> directive), one can assist the
-C compiler in detecting type errors by using the <Command>-#include</Command> directive
-to provide <Filename>.h</Filename> files containing function headers.
+The primitive type <Literal>State#</Literal> represents the state of a state
+transformer. It is parameterised on the desired type of state, which
+serves to keep states from distinct threads distinct from one another.
+But the <Emphasis>only</Emphasis> effect of this parameterisation is in the type
+system: all values of type <Literal>State#</Literal> are represented in the same way.
+Indeed, they are all represented by nothing at all! The code
+generator “knows” to generate no code, and allocate no registers
+etc, for primitive states.
</Para>
<Para>
-For example,
+
+<ProgramListing>
+type State# s
+</ProgramListing>
+
+</Para>
+
+<Para>
+The type <Literal>GHC.RealWorld</Literal> is truly opaque: there are no values defined
+of this type, and no operations over it. It is “primitive” in that
+sense - but it is <Emphasis>not unlifted!</Emphasis> Its only role in life is to be
+the type which distinguishes the <Literal>IO</Literal> state transformer.
</Para>
<Para>
<ProgramListing>
-typedef unsigned long *StgForeignObj;
-typedef long StgInt;
-
-void initialiseEFS (StgInt size);
-StgInt terminateEFS (void);
-StgForeignObj emptyEFS(void);
-StgForeignObj updateEFS (StgForeignObj a, StgInt i, StgInt x);
-StgInt lookupEFS (StgForeignObj a, StgInt i);
-</ProgramListing>
-
-</Para>
-
-<Para>
-You can find appropriate definitions for <Literal>StgInt</Literal>, <Literal>StgForeignObj</Literal>,
-etc using <Command>gcc</Command> on your architecture by consulting
-<Filename>ghc/includes/StgTypes.h</Filename>. The following table summarises the
-relationship between Haskell types and C types.
-</Para>
-
-<Para>
-
-<InformalTable>
-<TGroup Cols="2">
-<ColSpec Align="Left" Colsep="0">
-<ColSpec Align="Left" Colsep="0">
-<TBody>
-<Row>
-<Entry><Emphasis>C type name</Emphasis> </Entry>
-<Entry> <Emphasis>Haskell Type</Emphasis> </Entry>
-</Row>
-
-<Row>
-<Entry>
-<Literal>StgChar</Literal> </Entry>
-<Entry> <Literal>Char#</Literal> </Entry>
-</Row>
-<Row>
-<Entry>
-<Literal>StgInt</Literal> </Entry>
-<Entry> <Literal>Int#</Literal> </Entry>
-</Row>
-<Row>
-<Entry>
-<Literal>StgWord</Literal> </Entry>
-<Entry> <Literal>Word#</Literal> </Entry>
-</Row>
-<Row>
-<Entry>
-<Literal>StgAddr</Literal> </Entry>
-<Entry> <Literal>Addr#</Literal> </Entry>
-</Row>
-<Row>
-<Entry>
-<Literal>StgFloat</Literal> </Entry>
-<Entry> <Literal>Float#</Literal> </Entry>
-</Row>
-<Row>
-<Entry>
-<Literal>StgDouble</Literal> </Entry>
-<Entry> <Literal>Double#</Literal> </Entry>
-</Row>
-<Row>
-<Entry>
-<Literal>StgArray</Literal> </Entry>
-<Entry> <Literal>Array#</Literal> </Entry>
-</Row>
-<Row>
-<Entry>
-<Literal>StgByteArray</Literal> </Entry>
-<Entry> <Literal>ByteArray#</Literal> </Entry>
-</Row>
-<Row>
-<Entry>
-<Literal>StgArray</Literal> </Entry>
-<Entry> <Literal>MutableArray#</Literal> </Entry>
-</Row>
-<Row>
-<Entry>
-<Literal>StgByteArray</Literal> </Entry>
-<Entry> <Literal>MutableByteArray#</Literal> </Entry>
-</Row>
-<Row>
-<Entry>
-<Literal>StgStablePtr</Literal> </Entry>
-<Entry> <Literal>StablePtr#</Literal> </Entry>
-</Row>
-<Row>
-<Entry>
-<Literal>StgForeignObj</Literal> </Entry>
-<Entry> <Literal>ForeignObj#</Literal></Entry>
-</Row>
-</TBody>
-
-</TGroup>
-</InformalTable>
-</Para>
-
-<Para>
-Note that this approach is only <Emphasis>essential</Emphasis> for returning
-<Literal>float</Literal>s (or if <Literal>sizeof(int) != sizeof(int *)</Literal> on your
-architecture) but is a Good Thing for anyone who cares about writing
-solid code. You're crazy not to do it.
+data RealWorld
+</ProgramListing>
+
</Para>
</Sect2>
-<Sect2 id="glasgow-stablePtrs">
-<Title>Subverting automatic unboxing with “stable pointers”
-</Title>
+<Sect2>
+<Title>State of the world</Title>
<Para>
-<IndexTerm><Primary>stable pointers (Glasgow extension)</Primary></IndexTerm>
+A single, primitive, value of type <Literal>State# RealWorld</Literal> is provided.
</Para>
<Para>
-The arguments of a <Function>_ccall_</Function> automatically unboxed before the
-call. There are two reasons why this is usually the Right Thing to
-do:
+
+<ProgramListing>
+realWorld# :: State# RealWorld
+</ProgramListing>
+
+<IndexTerm><Primary>realWorld# state object</Primary></IndexTerm>
</Para>
<Para>
+(Note: in the compiler, not a <Literal>PrimOp</Literal>; just a mucho magic
+<Literal>Id</Literal>. Exported from <Literal>GHC</Literal>, though).
+</Para>
-<ItemizedList>
-<ListItem>
+</Sect2>
+
+<Sect2 id="sect-mutable">
+<Title>Mutable arrays</Title>
<Para>
-C is a strict language: it would be excessively tedious to pass
-unevaluated arguments and require the C programmer to force their
-evaluation before using them.
+<IndexTerm><Primary>mutable arrays</Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary>arrays, mutable</Primary></IndexTerm>
+Corresponding to <Literal>Array#</Literal> and <Literal>ByteArray#</Literal>, we have the types of
+mutable versions of each. In each case, the representation is a
+pointer to a suitable block of (mutable) heap-allocated storage.
+</Para>
+<Para>
+
+<ProgramListing>
+type MutableArray# s elt
+type MutableByteArray# s
+</ProgramListing>
+
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>MutableArray#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>MutableByteArray#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
</Para>
-</ListItem>
-<ListItem>
+
+<Sect3>
+<Title>Allocation</Title>
<Para>
- Boxed values are stored on the Haskell heap and may be moved
-within the heap if a garbage collection occurs—that is, pointers
-to boxed objects are not <Emphasis>stable</Emphasis>.
+<IndexTerm><Primary>mutable arrays, allocation</Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary>arrays, allocation</Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary>allocation, of mutable arrays</Primary></IndexTerm>
</Para>
-</ListItem>
-</ItemizedList>
+<Para>
+Mutable arrays can be allocated. Only pointer-arrays are initialised;
+arrays of non-pointers are filled in by “user code” rather than by
+the array-allocation primitive. Reason: only the pointer case has to
+worry about GC striking with a partly-initialised array.
+</Para>
+
+<Para>
+<ProgramListing>
+newArray# :: Int# -> elt -> State# s -> (# State# s, MutableArray# s elt #)
+
+newCharArray# :: Int# -> State# s -> (# State# s, MutableByteArray# s elt #)
+newIntArray# :: Int# -> State# s -> (# State# s, MutableByteArray# s elt #)
+newAddrArray# :: Int# -> State# s -> (# State# s, MutableByteArray# s elt #)
+newFloatArray# :: Int# -> State# s -> (# State# s, MutableByteArray# s elt #)
+newDoubleArray# :: Int# -> State# s -> (# State# s, MutableByteArray# s elt #)
+</ProgramListing>
+
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>newArray#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>newCharArray#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>newIntArray#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>newAddrArray#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>newFloatArray#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>newDoubleArray#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
</Para>
<Para>
-It is possible to subvert the unboxing process by creating a “stable
-pointer” to a value and passing the stable pointer instead. For
-example, to pass/return an integer lazily to C functions <Function>storeC</Function> and
-<Function>fetchC</Function> might write:
+The size of a <Literal>ByteArray#</Literal> is given in bytes.
+</Para>
+
+</Sect3>
+
+<Sect3>
+<Title>Reading and writing</Title>
+
+<Para>
+<IndexTerm><Primary>arrays, reading and writing</Primary></IndexTerm>
</Para>
<Para>
<ProgramListing>
-storeH :: Int -> IO ()
-storeH x = makeStablePtr x >>= \ stable_x ->
- _ccall_ storeC stable_x
+readArray# :: MutableArray# s elt -> Int# -> State# s -> (# State# s, elt #)
+readCharArray# :: MutableByteArray# s -> Int# -> State# s -> (# State# s, Char# #)
+readIntArray# :: MutableByteArray# s -> Int# -> State# s -> (# State# s, Int# #)
+readAddrArray# :: MutableByteArray# s -> Int# -> State# s -> (# State# s, Addr# #)
+readFloatArray# :: MutableByteArray# s -> Int# -> State# s -> (# State# s, Float# #)
+readDoubleArray# :: MutableByteArray# s -> Int# -> State# s -> (# State# s, Double# #)
+
+writeArray# :: MutableArray# s elt -> Int# -> elt -> State# s -> State# s
+writeCharArray# :: MutableByteArray# s -> Int# -> Char# -> State# s -> State# s
+writeIntArray# :: MutableByteArray# s -> Int# -> Int# -> State# s -> State# s
+writeAddrArray# :: MutableByteArray# s -> Int# -> Addr# -> State# s -> State# s
+writeFloatArray# :: MutableByteArray# s -> Int# -> Float# -> State# s -> State# s
+writeDoubleArray# :: MutableByteArray# s -> Int# -> Double# -> State# s -> State# s
+</ProgramListing>
+
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>readArray#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>readCharArray#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>readIntArray#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>readAddrArray#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>readFloatArray#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>readDoubleArray#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>writeArray#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>writeCharArray#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>writeIntArray#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>writeAddrArray#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>writeFloatArray#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>writeDoubleArray#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+</Para>
-fetchH :: IO Int
-fetchH x = _ccall_ fetchC >>= \ stable_x ->
- deRefStablePtr stable_x >>= \ x ->
- freeStablePtr stable_x >>
- return x
+</Sect3>
+
+<Sect3>
+<Title>Equality</Title>
+
+<Para>
+<IndexTerm><Primary>arrays, testing for equality</Primary></IndexTerm>
+</Para>
+
+<Para>
+One can take “equality” of mutable arrays. What is compared is the
+<Emphasis>name</Emphasis> or reference to the mutable array, not its contents.
+</Para>
+
+<Para>
+
+<ProgramListing>
+sameMutableArray# :: MutableArray# s elt -> MutableArray# s elt -> Bool
+sameMutableByteArray# :: MutableByteArray# s -> MutableByteArray# s -> Bool
</ProgramListing>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>sameMutableArray#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>sameMutableByteArray#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
</Para>
+</Sect3>
+
+<Sect3>
+<Title>Freezing mutable arrays</Title>
+
<Para>
-The garbage collector will refrain from throwing a stable pointer away
-until you explicitly call one of the following from C or Haskell.
+<IndexTerm><Primary>arrays, freezing mutable</Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary>freezing mutable arrays</Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary>mutable arrays, freezing</Primary></IndexTerm>
+</Para>
+
+<Para>
+Only unsafe-freeze has a primitive. (Safe freeze is done directly in Haskell
+by copying the array and then using <Function>unsafeFreeze</Function>.)
</Para>
<Para>
<ProgramListing>
-void freeStablePointer( StgStablePtr stablePtrToToss )
-freeStablePtr :: StablePtr a -> IO ()
+unsafeFreezeArray# :: MutableArray# s elt -> State# s -> (# State# s, Array# s elt #)
+unsafeFreezeByteArray# :: MutableByteArray# s -> State# s -> (# State# s, ByteArray# #)
</ProgramListing>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>unsafeFreezeArray#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>unsafeFreezeByteArray#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
</Para>
+</Sect3>
+
+</Sect2>
+
+<Sect2>
+<Title>Synchronizing variables (M-vars)</Title>
+
<Para>
-As with the use of <Function>free</Function> in C programs, GREAT CARE SHOULD BE
-EXERCISED to ensure these functions are called at the right time: too
-early and you get dangling references (and, if you're lucky, an error
-message from the runtime system); too late and you get space leaks.
+<IndexTerm><Primary>synchronising variables (M-vars)</Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary>M-Vars</Primary></IndexTerm>
</Para>
<Para>
-And to force evaluation of the argument within <Function>fooC</Function>, one would
-call one of the following C functions (according to type of argument).
+Synchronising variables are the primitive type used to implement
+Concurrent Haskell's MVars (see the Concurrent Haskell paper for
+the operational behaviour of these operations).
</Para>
<Para>
<ProgramListing>
-void performIO ( StgStablePtr stableIndex /* StablePtr s (IO ()) */ );
-StgInt enterInt ( StgStablePtr stableIndex /* StablePtr s Int */ );
-StgFloat enterFloat ( StgStablePtr stableIndex /* StablePtr s Float */ );
+type MVar# s elt -- primitive
+
+newMVar# :: State# s -> (# State# s, MVar# s elt #)
+takeMVar# :: SynchVar# s elt -> State# s -> (# State# s, elt #)
+putMVar# :: SynchVar# s elt -> State# s -> State# s
</ProgramListing>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>SynchVar#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>newSynchVar#</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>takeMVar</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary><literal>putMVar</literal></Primary></IndexTerm>
+</Para>
+
+</Sect2>
+
+</Sect1>
+
+<Sect1 id="glasgow-ST-monad">
+<Title>Primitive state-transformer monad
+</Title>
+
+<Para>
+<IndexTerm><Primary>state transformers (Glasgow extensions)</Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary>ST monad (Glasgow extension)</Primary></IndexTerm>
+</Para>
+
+<Para>
+This monad underlies our implementation of arrays, mutable and
+immutable, and our implementation of I/O, including “C calls”.
+</Para>
+
+<Para>
+The <Literal>ST</Literal> library, which provides access to the
+<Function>ST</Function> monad, is described in <xref
+linkend="sec-ST">.
+</Para>
+
+</Sect1>
+
+<Sect1 id="glasgow-prim-arrays">
+<Title>Primitive arrays, mutable and otherwise
+</Title>
+
+<Para>
+<IndexTerm><Primary>primitive arrays (Glasgow extension)</Primary></IndexTerm>
+<IndexTerm><Primary>arrays, primitive (Glasgow extension)</Primary></IndexTerm>
</Para>
<Para>
-<IndexTerm><Primary>performIO</Primary></IndexTerm>
-<IndexTerm><Primary>enterInt</Primary></IndexTerm>
-<IndexTerm><Primary>enterFloat</Primary></IndexTerm>
+GHC knows about quite a few flavours of Large Swathes of Bytes.
+</Para>
+
+<Para>
+First, GHC distinguishes between primitive arrays of (boxed) Haskell
+objects (type <Literal>Array# obj</Literal>) and primitive arrays of bytes (type
+<Literal>ByteArray#</Literal>).
+</Para>
+
+<Para>
+Second, it distinguishes between…
+<VariableList>
+
+<VarListEntry>
+<Term>Immutable:</Term>
+<ListItem>
+<Para>
+Arrays that do not change (as with “standard” Haskell arrays); you
+can only read from them. Obviously, they do not need the care and
+attention of the state-transformer monad.
+</Para>
+</ListItem>
+</VarListEntry>
+<VarListEntry>
+<Term>Mutable:</Term>
+<ListItem>
+<Para>
+Arrays that may be changed or “mutated.” All the operations on them
+live within the state-transformer monad and the updates happen
+<Emphasis>in-place</Emphasis>.
+</Para>
+</ListItem>
+</VarListEntry>
+<VarListEntry>
+<Term>“Static” (in C land):</Term>
+<ListItem>
+<Para>
+A C routine may pass an <Literal>Addr#</Literal> pointer back into Haskell land. There
+are then primitive operations with which you may merrily grab values
+over in C land, by indexing off the “static” pointer.
+</Para>
+</ListItem>
+</VarListEntry>
+<VarListEntry>
+<Term>“Stable” pointers:</Term>
+<ListItem>
+<Para>
+If, for some reason, you wish to hand a Haskell pointer (i.e.,
+<Emphasis>not</Emphasis> an unboxed value) to a C routine, you first make the
+pointer “stable,” so that the garbage collector won't forget that it
+exists. That is, GHC provides a safe way to pass Haskell pointers to
+C.
</Para>
<Para>
-Nota Bene: <Function>_ccall_GC_</Function><IndexTerm><Primary>_ccall_GC_</Primary></IndexTerm> must be used if any of
-these functions are used.
+Please see <XRef LinkEnd="sec-stable-pointers"> for more details.
</Para>
-
-</Sect2>
-
-<Sect2 id="glasgow-foreignObjs">
-<Title>Foreign objects: pointing outside the Haskell heap
-</Title>
-
+</ListItem>
+</VarListEntry>
+<VarListEntry>
+<Term>“Foreign objects”:</Term>
+<ListItem>
<Para>
-<IndexTerm><Primary>foreign objects (Glasgow extension)</Primary></IndexTerm>
+A “foreign object” is a safe way to pass an external object (a
+C-allocated pointer, say) to Haskell and have Haskell do the Right
+Thing when it no longer references the object. So, for example, C
+could pass a large bitmap over to Haskell and say “please free this
+memory when you're done with it.”
</Para>
<Para>
-There are two types that GHC programs can use to reference
-(heap-allocated) objects outside the Haskell world: <Literal>Addr</Literal> and
-<Literal>ForeignObj</Literal>.
+Please see <XRef LinkEnd="sec-ForeignObj"> for more details.
</Para>
-
-<Para>
-If you use <Literal>Addr</Literal>, it is up to you to the programmer to arrange
-allocation and deallocation of the objects.
+</ListItem>
+</VarListEntry>
+</VariableList>
</Para>
<Para>
-If you use <Literal>ForeignObj</Literal>, GHC's garbage collector will call upon the
-user-supplied <Emphasis>finaliser</Emphasis> function to free the object when the
-Haskell world no longer can access the object. (An object is
-associated with a finaliser function when the abstract
-Haskell type <Literal>ForeignObj</Literal> is created). The finaliser function is
-expressed in C, and is passed as argument the object:
+The libraries documentatation gives more details on all these
+“primitive array” types and the operations on them.
</Para>
-<Para>
+</Sect1>
-<ProgramListing>
-void foreignFinaliser ( StgForeignObj fo )
-</ProgramListing>
-</Para>
+<Sect1 id="pattern-guards">
+<Title>Pattern guards</Title>
<Para>
-when the Haskell world can no longer access the object. Since
-<Literal>ForeignObj</Literal>s only get released when a garbage collection occurs, we
-provide ways of triggering a garbage collection from within C and from
-within Haskell.
+<IndexTerm><Primary>Pattern guards (Glasgow extension)</Primary></IndexTerm>
+The discussion that follows is an abbreviated version of Simon Peyton Jones's original <ULink URL="http://research.microsoft.com/~simonpj/Haskell/guards.html">proposal</ULink>. (Note that the proposal was written before pattern guards were implemented, so refers to them as unimplemented.)
</Para>
<Para>
+Suppose we have an abstract data type of finite maps, with a
+lookup operation:
<ProgramListing>
-void GarbageCollect()
-performGC :: IO ()
+lookup :: FiniteMap -> Int -> Maybe Int
</ProgramListing>
+The lookup returns <Function>Nothing</Function> if the supplied key is not in the domain of the mapping, and <Function>(Just v)</Function> otherwise,
+where <VarName>v</VarName> is the value that the key maps to. Now consider the following definition:
</Para>
+<ProgramListing>
+clunky env var1 var2 | ok1 && ok2 = val1 + val2
+| otherwise = var1 + var2
+where
+ m1 = lookup env var1
+ m2 = lookup env var2
+ ok1 = maybeToBool m1
+ ok2 = maybeToBool m2
+ val1 = expectJust m1
+ val2 = expectJust m2
+</ProgramListing>
+
<Para>
-More information on the programmers' interface to <Literal>ForeignObj</Literal> can be
-found in the library documentation.
+The auxiliary functions are
</Para>
-</Sect2>
-
-<Sect2 id="glasgow-avoiding-monads">
-<Title>Avoiding monads
-</Title>
+<ProgramListing>
+maybeToBool :: Maybe a -> Bool
+maybeToBool (Just x) = True
+maybeToBool Nothing = False
-<Para>
-<IndexTerm><Primary>C calls to `pure C'</Primary></IndexTerm>
-<IndexTerm><Primary>unsafePerformIO</Primary></IndexTerm>
-</Para>
+expectJust :: Maybe a -> a
+expectJust (Just x) = x
+expectJust Nothing = error "Unexpected Nothing"
+</ProgramListing>
<Para>
-The <Function>_ccall_</Function> construct is part of the <Literal>IO</Literal> monad because 9 out of 10
-uses will be to call imperative functions with side effects such as
-<Function>printf</Function>. Use of the monad ensures that these operations happen in a
-predictable order in spite of laziness and compiler optimisations.
+What is <Function>clunky</Function> doing? The guard <Literal>ok1 &&
+ok2</Literal> checks that both lookups succeed, using
+<Function>maybeToBool</Function> to convert the <Function>Maybe</Function>
+types to booleans. The (lazily evaluated) <Function>expectJust</Function>
+calls extract the values from the results of the lookups, and binds the
+returned values to <VarName>val1</VarName> and <VarName>val2</VarName>
+respectively. If either lookup fails, then clunky takes the
+<Literal>otherwise</Literal> case and returns the sum of its arguments.
</Para>
<Para>
-To avoid having to be in the monad to call a C function, it is
-possible to use <Function>unsafePerformIO</Function>, which is available from the
-<Literal>IOExts</Literal> module. There are three situations where one might like to
-call a C function from outside the IO world:
+This is certainly legal Haskell, but it is a tremendously verbose and
+un-obvious way to achieve the desired effect. Arguably, a more direct way
+to write clunky would be to use case expressions:
</Para>
-<Para>
-
-<ItemizedList>
-<ListItem>
-
-<Para>
-Calling a function with no side-effects:
-
<ProgramListing>
-atan2d :: Double -> Double -> Double
-atan2d y x = unsafePerformIO (_ccall_ atan2d y x)
-
-sincosd :: Double -> (Double, Double)
-sincosd x = unsafePerformIO $ do
- da <- newDoubleArray (0, 1)
- _casm_ “sincosd( %0, &((double *)%1[0]), &((double *)%1[1]) );” x da
- s <- readDoubleArray da 0
- c <- readDoubleArray da 1
- return (s, c)
+clunky env var1 var1 = case lookup env var1 of
+ Nothing -> fail
+ Just val1 -> case lookup env var2 of
+ Nothing -> fail
+ Just val2 -> val1 + val2
+where
+ fail = val1 + val2
</ProgramListing>
-
+<Para>
+This is a bit shorter, but hardly better. Of course, we can rewrite any set
+of pattern-matching, guarded equations as case expressions; that is
+precisely what the compiler does when compiling equations! The reason that
+Haskell provides guarded equations is because they allow us to write down
+the cases we want to consider, one at a time, independently of each other.
+This structure is hidden in the case version. Two of the right-hand sides
+are really the same (<Function>fail</Function>), and the whole expression
+tends to become more and more indented.
</Para>
-</ListItem>
-<ListItem>
<Para>
- Calling a set of functions which have side-effects but which can
-be used in a purely functional manner.
-
-For example, an imperative implementation of a purely functional
-lookup-table might be accessed using the following functions.
-
+Here is how I would write clunky:
+</Para>
<ProgramListing>
-empty :: EFS x
-update :: EFS x -> Int -> x -> EFS x
-lookup :: EFS a -> Int -> a
-
-empty = unsafePerformIO (_ccall_ emptyEFS)
-
-update a i x = unsafePerformIO $
- makeStablePtr x >>= \ stable_x ->
- _ccall_ updateEFS a i stable_x
-
-lookup a i = unsafePerformIO $
- _ccall_ lookupEFS a i >>= \ stable_x ->
- deRefStablePtr stable_x
+clunky env var1 var1
+ | Just val1 <- lookup env var1
+ , Just val2 <- lookup env var2
+ = val1 + val2
+...other equations for clunky...
</ProgramListing>
-
-You will almost always want to use <Literal>ForeignObj</Literal>s with this.
-
+<Para>
+The semantics should be clear enough. The qualifers are matched in order.
+For a <Literal><-</Literal> qualifier, which I call a pattern guard, the
+right hand side is evaluated and matched against the pattern on the left.
+If the match fails then the whole guard fails and the next equation is
+tried. If it succeeds, then the appropriate binding takes place, and the
+next qualifier is matched, in the augmented environment. Unlike list
+comprehensions, however, the type of the expression to the right of the
+<Literal><-</Literal> is the same as the type of the pattern to its
+left. The bindings introduced by pattern guards scope over all the
+remaining guard qualifiers, and over the right hand side of the equation.
</Para>
-</ListItem>
-<ListItem>
<Para>
- Calling a side-effecting function even though the results will
-be unpredictable. For example the <Function>trace</Function> function is defined by:
-
+Just as with list comprehensions, boolean expressions can be freely mixed
+with among the pattern guards. For example:
+</Para>
<ProgramListing>
-trace :: String -> a -> a
-trace string expr
- = unsafePerformIO (
- ((_ccall_ PreTraceHook sTDERR{-msg-}):: IO ()) >>
- fputs sTDERR string >>
- ((_ccall_ PostTraceHook sTDERR{-msg-}):: IO ()) >>
- return expr )
- where
- sTDERR = (“stderr” :: Addr)
+f x | [y] <- x
+ , y > 3
+ , Just z <- h y
+ = ...
</ProgramListing>
-
-(This kind of use is not highly recommended—it is only really
-useful in debugging code.)
-</Para>
-</ListItem>
-
-</ItemizedList>
-
+<Para>
+Haskell's current guards therefore emerge as a special case, in which the
+qualifier list has just one element, a boolean expression.
</Para>
+</Sect1>
-</Sect2>
+ <sect1 id="sec-ffi">
+ <title>The foreign interface</title>
+
+ <para>The foreign interface consists of the following components:</para>
+
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>The Foreign Function Interface language specification
+ (included in this manual, in <xref linkend="ffi">).</para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>The <literal>Foreign</literal> module (see <xref
+ linkend="sec-Foreign">) collects together several interfaces
+ which are useful in specifying foreign language
+ interfaces, including the following:</para>
+
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>The <literal>ForeignObj</literal> module (see <xref
+ linkend="sec-ForeignObj">), for managing pointers from
+ Haskell into the outside world.</para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>The <literal>StablePtr</literal> module (see <xref
+ linkend="sec-stable-pointers">), for managing pointers
+ into Haskell from the outside world.</para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>The <literal>CTypes</literal> module (see <xref
+ linkend="sec-CTypes">) gives Haskell equivalents for the
+ standard C datatypes, for use in making Haskell bindings
+ to existing C libraries.</para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>The <literal>CTypesISO</literal> module (see <xref
+ linkend="sec-CTypesISO">) gives Haskell equivalents for C
+ types defined by the ISO C standard.</para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>The <literal>Storable</literal> library, for
+ primitive marshalling of data types between Haskell and
+ the foreign language.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+
+ </listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+
+<para>The following sections also give some hints and tips on the use
+of the foreign function interface in GHC.</para>
-<Sect2 id="ccall-gotchas">
-<Title>C-calling “gotchas” checklist
+<Sect2 id="glasgow-foreign-headers">
+<Title>Using function headers
</Title>
<Para>
-<IndexTerm><Primary>C call dangers</Primary></IndexTerm>
-<IndexTerm><Primary>CCallable</Primary></IndexTerm>
-<IndexTerm><Primary>CReturnable</Primary></IndexTerm>
-</Para>
-
-<Para>
-And some advice, too.
+<IndexTerm><Primary>C calls, function headers</Primary></IndexTerm>
</Para>
<Para>
-
-<ItemizedList>
-<ListItem>
-
-<Para>
- For modules that use <Function>_ccall_</Function>s, etc., compile with
-<Option>-fvia-C</Option>.<IndexTerm><Primary>-fvia-C option</Primary></IndexTerm> You don't have to, but you should.
-
-Also, use the <Option>-#include "prototypes.h"</Option> flag (hack) to inform the C
-compiler of the fully-prototyped types of all the C functions you
-call. (<XRef LinkEnd="glasgow-foreign-headers"> says more about this…)
-
-This scheme is the <Emphasis>only</Emphasis> way that you will get <Emphasis>any</Emphasis>
-typechecking of your <Function>_ccall_</Function>s. (It shouldn't be that way, but…).
-GHC will pass the flag <Option>-Wimplicit</Option> to <Command>gcc</Command> so that you'll get warnings
-if any <Function>_ccall_</Function>ed functions have no prototypes.
-
+When generating C (using the <Option>-fvia-C</Option> directive), one can assist the
+C compiler in detecting type errors by using the <Command>-#include</Command> directive
+to provide <Filename>.h</Filename> files containing function headers.
</Para>
-</ListItem>
-<ListItem>
<Para>
-Try to avoid <Function>_ccall_</Function>s to C functions that take <Literal>float</Literal>
-arguments or return <Literal>float</Literal> results. Reason: if you do, you will
-become entangled in (ANSI?) C's rules for when arguments/results are
-promoted to <Literal>doubles</Literal>. It's a nightmare and just not worth it.
-Use <Literal>doubles</Literal> if possible.
-
-If you do use <Literal>floats</Literal>, check and re-check that the right thing is
-happening. Perhaps compile with <Option>-keep-hc-file-too</Option> and look at
-the intermediate C (<Function>.hc</Function>).
-
+For example,
</Para>
-</ListItem>
-<ListItem>
-
-<Para>
- The compiler uses two non-standard type-classes when
-type-checking the arguments and results of <Function>_ccall_</Function>: the arguments
-(respectively result) of <Function>_ccall_</Function> must be instances of the class
-<Literal>CCallable</Literal> (respectively <Literal>CReturnable</Literal>). Both classes may be
-imported from the module <Literal>CCall</Literal>, but this should only be
-necessary if you want to define a new instance. (Neither class
-defines any methods—their only function is to keep the
-type-checker happy.)
-
-The type checker must be able to figure out just which of the
-C-callable/returnable types is being used. If it can't, you have to
-add type signatures. For example,
-
-
-<ProgramListing>
-f x = _ccall_ foo x
-</ProgramListing>
-
-
-is not good enough, because the compiler can't work out what type <VarName>x</VarName>
-is, nor what type the <Function>_ccall_</Function> returns. You have to write, say:
-
-
-<ProgramListing>
-f :: Int -> IO Double
-f x = _ccall_ foo x
-</ProgramListing>
-
-
-This table summarises the standard instances of these classes.
-
-<InformalTable>
-<TGroup Cols="4">
-<ColSpec Align="Left" Colsep="0">
-<ColSpec Align="Left" Colsep="0">
-<ColSpec Align="Left" Colsep="0">
-<ColSpec Align="Left" Colsep="0">
-<TBody>
-<Row>
-<Entry><Emphasis>Type</Emphasis> </Entry>
-<Entry><Emphasis>CCallable</Emphasis></Entry>
-<Entry><Emphasis>CReturnable</Emphasis> </Entry>
-<Entry><Emphasis>Which is probably…</Emphasis> </Entry>
-</Row>
-<Row>
-<Entry>
-<Literal>Char</Literal> </Entry>
-<Entry> Yes </Entry>
-<Entry> Yes </Entry>
-<Entry> <Literal>unsigned char</Literal> </Entry>
-</Row>
-<Row>
-<Entry>
-<Literal>Int</Literal> </Entry>
-<Entry> Yes </Entry>
-<Entry> Yes </Entry>
-<Entry> <Literal>long int</Literal> </Entry>
-</Row>
-<Row>
-<Entry>
-<Literal>Word</Literal> </Entry>
-<Entry> Yes </Entry>
-<Entry> Yes </Entry>
-<Entry> <Literal>unsigned long int</Literal> </Entry>
-</Row>
-<Row>
-<Entry>
-<Literal>Addr</Literal> </Entry>
-<Entry> Yes </Entry>
-<Entry> Yes </Entry>
-<Entry> <Literal>void *</Literal> </Entry>
-</Row>
-<Row>
-<Entry>
-<Literal>Float</Literal> </Entry>
-<Entry> Yes </Entry>
-<Entry> Yes </Entry>
-<Entry> <Literal>float</Literal> </Entry>
-</Row>
-<Row>
-<Entry>
-<Literal>Double</Literal> </Entry>
-<Entry> Yes </Entry>
-<Entry> Yes </Entry>
-<Entry> <Literal>double</Literal> </Entry>
-</Row>
-<Row>
-<Entry>
-<Literal>()</Literal> </Entry>
-<Entry> No </Entry>
-<Entry> Yes </Entry>
-<Entry> <Literal>void</Literal> </Entry>
-</Row>
-<Row>
-<Entry>
-<Literal>[Char]</Literal> </Entry>
-<Entry> Yes </Entry>
-<Entry> No </Entry>
-<Entry> <Literal>char *</Literal> (null-terminated) </Entry>
-</Row>
-<Row>
-<Entry>
-<Literal>Array</Literal> </Entry>
-<Entry> Yes </Entry>
-<Entry> No </Entry>
-<Entry> <Literal>unsigned long *</Literal> </Entry>
-</Row>
-<Row>
-<Entry>
-<Literal>ByteArray</Literal> </Entry>
-<Entry> Yes </Entry>
-<Entry> No </Entry>
-<Entry> <Literal>unsigned long *</Literal> </Entry>
-</Row>
-<Row>
-<Entry>
-<Literal>MutableArray</Literal> </Entry>
-<Entry> Yes </Entry>
-<Entry> No </Entry>
-<Entry> <Literal>unsigned long *</Literal> </Entry>
-</Row>
-<Row>
-<Entry>
-<Literal>MutableByteArray</Literal> </Entry>
-<Entry> Yes </Entry>
-<Entry> No </Entry>
-<Entry> <Literal>unsigned long *</Literal> </Entry>
-</Row>
-<Row>
-<Entry>
-<Literal>State</Literal> </Entry>
-<Entry> Yes </Entry>
-<Entry> Yes </Entry>
-<Entry> nothing!</Entry>
-</Row>
-<Row>
-<Entry>
-<Literal>StablePtr</Literal> </Entry>
-<Entry> Yes </Entry>
-<Entry> Yes </Entry>
-<Entry> <Literal>unsigned long *</Literal> </Entry>
-</Row>
-<Row>
-<Entry>
-<Literal>ForeignObjs</Literal> </Entry>
-<Entry> Yes </Entry>
-<Entry> Yes </Entry>
-<Entry> see later </Entry>
-</Row>
-
-</TBody>
-
-</TGroup>
-</InformalTable>
-
-Actually, the <Literal>Word</Literal> type is defined as being the same size as a
-pointer on the target architecture, which is <Emphasis>probably</Emphasis>
-<Literal>unsigned long int</Literal>.
-
-The brave and careful programmer can add their own instances of these
-classes for the following types:
-
-
-<ItemizedList>
-<ListItem>
<Para>
-A <Emphasis>boxed-primitive</Emphasis> type may be made an instance of both
-<Literal>CCallable</Literal> and <Literal>CReturnable</Literal>.
-
-A boxed primitive type is any data type with a
-single unary constructor with a single primitive argument. For
-example, the following are all boxed primitive types:
-
-
-<ProgramListing>
-Int
-Double
-data XDisplay = XDisplay Addr#
-data EFS a = EFS# ForeignObj#
-</ProgramListing>
-
-
<ProgramListing>
-instance CCallable (EFS a)
-instance CReturnable (EFS a)
-</ProgramListing>
-
-
-</Para>
-</ListItem>
-<ListItem>
-
-<Para>
- Any datatype with a single nullary constructor may be made an
-instance of <Literal>CReturnable</Literal>. For example:
+#include "HsFFI.h"
-
-<ProgramListing>
-data MyVoid = MyVoid
-instance CReturnable MyVoid
+void initialiseEFS (HsInt size);
+HsInt terminateEFS (void);
+HsForeignObj emptyEFS(void);
+HsForeignObj updateEFS (HsForeignObj a, HsInt i, HsInt x);
+HsInt lookupEFS (HsForeignObj a, HsInt i);
</ProgramListing>
-
-
-</Para>
-</ListItem>
-<ListItem>
-
-<Para>
- As at version 2.09, <Literal>String</Literal> (i.e., <Literal>[Char]</Literal>) is still
-not a <Literal>CReturnable</Literal> type.
-
-Also, the now-builtin type <Literal>PackedString</Literal> is neither
-<Literal>CCallable</Literal> nor <Literal>CReturnable</Literal>. (But there are functions in
-the PackedString interface to let you get at the necessary bits…)
-</Para>
-</ListItem>
-
-</ItemizedList>
-
-
</Para>
-</ListItem>
-<ListItem>
-
-<Para>
- The code-generator will complain if you attempt to use <Literal>%r</Literal> in
-a <Literal>_casm_</Literal> whose result type is <Literal>IO ()</Literal>; or if you don't use <Literal>%r</Literal>
-<Emphasis>precisely</Emphasis> once for any other result type. These messages are
-supposed to be helpful and catch bugs—please tell us if they wreck
-your life.
-
-</Para>
-</ListItem>
-<ListItem>
-<Para>
- If you call out to C code which may trigger the Haskell garbage
-collector or create new threads (examples of this later…), then you
-must use the <Function>_ccall_GC_</Function><IndexTerm><Primary>_ccall_GC_ primitive</Primary></IndexTerm> or
-<Function>_casm_GC_</Function><IndexTerm><Primary>_casm_GC_ primitive</Primary></IndexTerm> variant of C-calls. (This
-does not work with the native code generator—use <Option>-fvia-C</Option>.) This
-stuff is hairy with a capital H!
-</Para>
-</ListItem>
-
-</ItemizedList>
+ <para>The types <literal>HsInt</literal>,
+ <literal>HsForeignObj</literal> etc. are described in <xref
+ linkend="sec-mapping-table">.</Para>
-</Para>
+ <Para>Note that this approach is only
+ <Emphasis>essential</Emphasis> for returning
+ <Literal>float</Literal>s (or if <Literal>sizeof(int) !=
+ sizeof(int *)</Literal> on your architecture) but is a Good
+ Thing for anyone who cares about writing solid code. You're
+ crazy not to do it.</Para>
</Sect2>
</Title>
<Para>
-This section documents GHC's implementation of multi-paramter type
+This section documents GHC's implementation of multi-parameter type
classes. There's lots of background in the paper <ULink
-URL="http://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/~simonpj/multi.ps.gz"
->Type classes: exploring the design space</ULink
-> (Simon Peyton
-Jones, Mark Jones, Erik Meijer).
+URL="http://research.microsoft.com/~simonpj/multi.ps.gz" >Type
+classes: exploring the design space</ULink > (Simon Peyton Jones, Mark
+Jones, Erik Meijer).
</Para>
<Para>
<Para>
<ProgramListing>
- forall tv1..tvn (c1, ...,cn) => type
+ forall tv1..tvn (c1, ...,cn) => type
</ProgramListing>
</Para>
<ProgramListing>
- forall a. Eq a => Int
+ forall a. Eq a => Int
</ProgramListing>
<ProgramListing>
- forall a. C a b => burble
+ forall a. C a b => burble
</ProgramListing>
<ProgramListing>
- forall a. Eq b => burble
+ forall a. Eq b => burble
</ProgramListing>
<Para>
<ProgramListing>
- f :: Eq (m a) => [m a] -> [m a]
- g :: Eq [a] => ...
+ f :: Eq (m a) => [m a] -> [m a]
+ g :: Eq [a] => ...
</ProgramListing>
</Para>
<ProgramListing>
class Collection c a where
- union :: c a -> c a -> c a
+ union :: c a -> c a -> c a
...etc.
</ProgramListing>
<ProgramListing>
class C a where {
- op :: D b => a -> b -> b
+ op :: D b => a -> b -> b
}
- class C a => D a where { ... }
+ class C a => D a where { ... }
</ProgramListing>
<ProgramListing>
- class Functor (m k) => FiniteMap m k where
+ class Functor (m k) => FiniteMap m k where
...
- class (Monad m, Monad (t m)) => Transform t m where
- lift :: m a -> (t m) a
+ class (Monad m, Monad (t m)) => Transform t m where
+ lift :: m a -> (t m) a
</ProgramListing>
<ProgramListing>
class Collection c a where
- mapC :: Collection c b => (a->b) -> c a -> c b
+ mapC :: Collection c b => (a->b) -> c a -> c b
</ProgramListing>
<ProgramListing>
class C a where
- op :: Eq a => (a,b) -> (a,b)
+ op :: Eq a => (a,b) -> (a,b)
</ProgramListing>
<ProgramListing>
- class Eq a => C a where
- op ::(a,b) -> (a,b)
+ class Eq a => C a where
+ op ::(a,b) -> (a,b)
</ProgramListing>
<ProgramListing>
class Coll s a where
empty :: s
- insert :: s -> a -> s
+ insert :: s -> a -> s
</ProgramListing>
<ProgramListing>
class Coll s a where
empty :: s a
- insert :: s a -> a -> s a
+ insert :: s a -> a -> s a
</ProgramListing>
class CollE s where
empty :: s
- class CollE s => Coll s a where
- insert :: s -> a -> s
+ class CollE s => Coll s a where
+ insert :: s -> a -> s
</ProgramListing>
</Sect2>
-<Sect2>
+<Sect2 id="instance-decls">
<Title>Instance declarations</Title>
<Para>
<ProgramListing>
- instance context1 => C type1 where ...
- instance context2 => C type2 where ...
+ instance context1 => C type1 where ...
+ instance context2 => C type2 where ...
</ProgramListing>
<Para>
<Emphasis>There are no restrictions on the type in an instance
<Emphasis>head</Emphasis>, except that at least one must not be a type variable</Emphasis>.
-The instance "head" is the bit after the "=>" in an instance decl. For
+The instance "head" is the bit after the "=>" in an instance decl. For
example, these are OK:
<ProgramListing>
- instance C a => C a where ...
+ instance C a => C a where ...
</ProgramListing>
<ProgramListing>
- class (C1 a, C2 a, C3 a) => C a where { }
+ class (C1 a, C2 a, C3 a) => C a where { }
- instance (C1 a, C2 a, C3 a) => C a where { }
+ instance (C1 a, C2 a, C3 a) => C a where { }
</ProgramListing>
<ProgramListing>
- f :: C a => ...
+ f :: C a => ...
</ProgramListing>
<ProgramListing>
- f :: (C1 a, C2 a, C3 a) => ...
+ f :: (C1 a, C2 a, C3 a) => ...
</ProgramListing>
<ProgramListing>
-instance C a b => Eq (a,b) where ...
+instance C a b => Eq (a,b) where ...
</ProgramListing>
<ProgramListing>
-instance C Int b => Foo b where ...
+instance C Int b => Foo b where ...
</ProgramListing>
<Para>
<ProgramListing>
- forall a b. (Ord a, Eq b) => a -> b -> a
+ forall a b. (Ord a, Eq b) => a -> b -> a
</ProgramListing>
</Para>
<Para>
<ProgramListing>
- g :: b -> b
+ g :: b -> b
</ProgramListing>
</Para>
<Para>
<ProgramListing>
- g :: forall b. (b -> b)
+ g :: forall b. (b -> b)
</ProgramListing>
</Para>
<Para>
<ProgramListing>
-data T a = T1 (forall b. b -> b -> b) a
+data T a = T1 (forall b. b -> b -> b) a
-data MonadT m = MkMonad { return :: forall a. a -> m a,
- bind :: forall a b. m a -> (a -> m b) -> m b
+data MonadT m = MkMonad { return :: forall a. a -> m a,
+ bind :: forall a b. m a -> (a -> m b) -> m b
}
-newtype Swizzle = MkSwizzle (Ord a => [a] -> [a])
+newtype Swizzle = MkSwizzle (Ord a => [a] -> [a])
</ProgramListing>
</Para>
<Para>
<ProgramListing>
-T1 :: forall a. (forall b. b -> b -> b) -> a -> T1 a
-MkMonad :: forall m. (forall a. a -> m a)
- -> (forall a b. m a -> (a -> m b) -> m b)
- -> MonadT m
-MkSwizzle :: (Ord a => [a] -> [a]) -> Swizzle
+T1 :: forall a. (forall b. b -> b -> b) -> a -> T a
+MkMonad :: forall m. (forall a. a -> m a)
+ -> (forall a b. m a -> (a -> m b) -> m b)
+ -> MonadT m
+MkSwizzle :: (Ord a => [a] -> [a]) -> Swizzle
</ProgramListing>
</Para>
types too. So if you write this:
<ProgramListing>
- data T a = MkT (Either a b) (b -> b)
+ data T a = MkT (Either a b) (b -> b)
</ProgramListing>
it's just as if you had written this:
<ProgramListing>
- data T a = MkT (forall b. Either a b) (forall b. b -> b)
+ data T a = MkT (forall b. Either a b) (forall b. b -> b)
</ProgramListing>
That is, since the type variable <Literal>b</Literal> isn't in scope, it's
<Para>
<ProgramListing>
-(T1 (\xy->x) 3) :: T Int
+(T1 (\xy->x) 3) :: T Int
(MkSwizzle sort) :: Swizzle
(MkSwizzle reverse) :: Swizzle
(let r x = Just x
b m k = case m of
- Just y -> k y
- Nothing -> Nothing
+ Just y -> k y
+ Nothing -> Nothing
in
MkMonad r b) :: MonadT Maybe
</ProgramListing>
<Para>
<ProgramListing>
- f :: T a -> a -> (a, Char)
+ f :: T a -> a -> (a, Char)
f (T1 f k) x = (f k x, f 'c' 'd')
- g :: (Ord a, Ord b) => Swizzle -> [a] -> (a -> b) -> [b]
+ g :: (Ord a, Ord b) => Swizzle -> [a] -> (a -> b) -> [b]
g (MkSwizzle s) xs f = s (map f (s xs))
- h :: MonadT m -> [m a] -> m [a]
+ h :: MonadT m -> [m a] -> m [a]
h m [] = return m []
- h m (x:xs) = bind m x $ \y ->
- bind m (h m xs) $ \ys ->
+ h m (x:xs) = bind m x $ \y ->
+ bind m (h m xs) $ \ys ->
return m (y:ys)
</ProgramListing>
<ProgramListing>
newtype TIM s a = TIM (ST s (Maybe a))
- runTIM :: (forall s. TIM s a) -> Maybe a
+ runTIM :: (forall s. TIM s a) -> Maybe a
runTIM (TIM m) = runST m
</ProgramListing>
must bind the variable and pattern match in the right hand side:
<ProgramListing>
- runTIM :: (forall s. TIM s a) -> Maybe a
- runTIM tm = case tm of { TIM m -> runST m }
+ runTIM :: (forall s. TIM s a) -> Maybe a
+ runTIM tm = case tm of { TIM m -> runST m }
</ProgramListing>
The <Literal>tm</Literal> on the right hand side is (invisibly) instantiated, like
<Para>
In the illegal example, the sub-expression <Literal>MkSwizzle</Literal> has the
-polymorphic type <Literal>(Ord b => [b] -> [b]) -> Swizzle</Literal> and is not
+polymorphic type <Literal>(Ord b => [b] -> [b]) -> Swizzle</Literal> and is not
a sub-expression of an enclosing application. On the other hand, this
expression is OK:
</Para>
<Para>
<ProgramListing>
- map (T1 (\a b -> a)) [1,2,3]
+ map (T1 (\a b -> a)) [1,2,3]
</ProgramListing>
</Para>
<Para>
even though it involves a partial application of <Function>T1</Function>, because
-the sub-expression <Literal>T1 (\a b -> a)</Literal> has type <Literal>Int -> T
+the sub-expression <Literal>T1 (\a b -> a)</Literal> has type <Literal>Int -> T
Int</Literal>.
</Para>
<Para>
<ProgramListing>
- mkTs :: (forall b. b -> b -> b) -> a -> [T a]
+ mkTs :: (forall b. b -> b -> b) -> a -> [T a]
mkTs f x y = [T1 f x, T1 f y]
</ProgramListing>
<Para>
This type signature tells the compiler to attribute <Literal>f</Literal> with
-the polymorphic type <Literal>(forall b. b -> b -> b)</Literal> when type
+the polymorphic type <Literal>(forall b. b -> b -> b)</Literal> when type
checking the body of <Function>mkTs</Function>, so now the application of
<Function>T1</Function> is fine.
</Para>
<ProgramListing>
-rank2type ::= [forall tyvars .] [context =>] funty
-funty ::= ([forall tyvars .] [context =>] ty) -> funty
+rank2type ::= [forall tyvars .] [context =>] funty
+funty ::= ([forall tyvars .] [context =>] ty) -> funty
| ty
ty ::= ...current Haskell monotype syntax...
</ProgramListing>
<ProgramListing>
-mkTs :: (forall b. b -> b -> b) -> a -> [T a]
-mkTs = \ f x y -> [T1 f x, T1 f y]
+mkTs :: (forall b. b -> b -> b) -> a -> [T a]
+mkTs = \ f x y -> [T1 f x, T1 f y]
</ProgramListing>
</Sect2>
+
+<Sect2 id="hoist">
+<Title>Type synonyms and hoisting
+</Title>
+
+<Para>
+GHC also allows you to write a <Literal>forall</Literal> in a type synonym, thus:
+<ProgramListing>
+ type Discard a = forall b. a -> b -> a
+
+ f :: Discard a
+ f x y = x
+</ProgramListing>
+However, it is often convenient to use these sort of synonyms at the right hand
+end of an arrow, thus:
+<ProgramListing>
+ type Discard a = forall b. a -> b -> a
+
+ g :: Int -> Discard Int
+ g x y z = x+y
+</ProgramListing>
+Simply expanding the type synonym would give
+<ProgramListing>
+ g :: Int -> (forall b. Int -> b -> Int)
+</ProgramListing>
+but GHC "hoists" the <Literal>forall</Literal> to give the isomorphic type
+<ProgramListing>
+ g :: forall b. Int -> Int -> b -> Int
+</ProgramListing>
+In general, the rule is this: <Emphasis>to determine the type specified by any explicit
+user-written type (e.g. in a type signature), GHC expands type synonyms and then repeatedly
+performs the transformation:</Emphasis>
+<ProgramListing>
+ <Emphasis>type1</Emphasis> -> forall a. <Emphasis>type2</Emphasis>
+==>
+ forall a. <Emphasis>type1</Emphasis> -> <Emphasis>type2</Emphasis>
+</ProgramListing>
+(In fact, GHC tries to retain as much synonym information as possible for use in
+error messages, but that is a usability issue.) This rule applies, of course, whether
+or not the <Literal>forall</Literal> comes from a synonym. For example, here is another
+valid way to write <Literal>g</Literal>'s type signature:
+<ProgramListing>
+ g :: Int -> Int -> forall b. b -> Int
+</ProgramListing>
+</Para>
+</Sect2>
+
</Sect1>
<Sect1 id="existential-quantification">
<Para>
<ProgramListing>
- data Foo = forall a. MkFoo a (a -> Bool)
+ data Foo = forall a. MkFoo a (a -> Bool)
| Nil
</ProgramListing>
<Para>
<ProgramListing>
- MkFoo :: forall a. a -> (a -> Bool) -> Foo
+ MkFoo :: forall a. a -> (a -> Bool) -> Foo
Nil :: Foo
</ProgramListing>
<Para>
<ProgramListing>
- f :: Foo -> Bool
+ f :: Foo -> Bool
f (MkFoo val fn) = fn val
</ProgramListing>
<Para>
<ProgramListing>
- MkFoo :: (exists a . (a, a -> Bool)) -> Foo
+ MkFoo :: (exists a . (a, a -> Bool)) -> Foo
</ProgramListing>
</Para>
<Para>
<ProgramListing>
-data Baz = forall a. Eq a => Baz1 a a
- | forall b. Show b => Baz2 b (b -> b)
+data Baz = forall a. Eq a => Baz1 a a
+ | forall b. Show b => Baz2 b (b -> b)
</ProgramListing>
</Para>
<Para>
<ProgramListing>
-Baz1 :: forall a. Eq a => a -> a -> Baz
-Baz2 :: forall b. Show b => b -> (b -> b) -> Baz
+Baz1 :: forall a. Eq a => a -> a -> Baz
+Baz2 :: forall b. Show b => b -> (b -> b) -> Baz
</ProgramListing>
</Para>
<Para>
<ProgramListing>
- f :: Baz -> String
+ f :: Baz -> String
f (Baz1 p q) | p == q = "Yes"
| otherwise = "No"
f (Baz1 v fn) = show (fn v)
<ProgramListing>
- f1 :: Foo -> a -- Weird!
+ f1 :: Foo -> a -- Weird!
</ProgramListing>
<ProgramListing>
- f1 :: forall a. Foo -> a -- Wrong!
+ f1 :: forall a. Foo -> a -- Wrong!
</ProgramListing>
<ProgramListing>
- newtype T = forall a. Ord a => MkT a
+ newtype T = forall a. Ord a => MkT a
</ProgramListing>
<Para>
<ProgramListing>
-assert :: Bool -> a -> a
+assert :: Bool -> a -> a
assert False x = error "assertion failed!"
assert _ x = x
</ProgramListing>
<Para>
<ProgramListing>
-kelvinToC :: Double -> Double
-kelvinToC k = assert (k &gt;= 0.0) (k+273.15)
+kelvinToC :: Double -> Double
+kelvinToC k = assert (k >= 0.0) (k+273.15)
</ProgramListing>
</Para>
<Para>
<ProgramListing>
-assert pred val ==> assertError "Main.hs|15" pred val
+assert pred val ==> assertError "Main.hs|15" pred val
</ProgramListing>
</Para>
<Para>
Assertion failures can be caught, see the documentation for the
-Hugs/GHC Exception library for information of how.
+<literal>Exception</literal> library (<xref linkend="sec-Exception">)
+for the details.
</Para>
</Sect1>
<ProgramListing>
- f :: a -> a
+ f :: a -> a
f x = x::a
</ProgramListing>
<ProgramListing>
class C a where
- op :: [a] -> a
+ op :: [a] -> a
op xs = let ys::[a]
ys = reverse xs
<ProgramListing>
- f :: [a] -> [a]
+ f :: [a] -> [a]
f (xs::[b]) = reverse xs
</ProgramListing>
k (x::a) True = ... -- a unifies with Int
k (x::Int) False = ...
- w :: [b] -> [b]
+ w :: [b] -> [b]
w (x::a) = x -- a unifies with [b]
</ProgramListing>
<ProgramListing>
- f :: Int -> [a] -> [a]
- f n :: ([a] -> [a]) = let g (x::a, y::a) = (y,x)
- in \xs -> map g (reverse xs `zip` xs)
+ f :: Int -> [a] -> [a]
+ f n :: ([a] -> [a]) = let g (x::a, y::a) = (y,x)
+ in \xs -> map g (reverse xs `zip` xs)
</ProgramListing>
<ProgramListing>
- (\ (x::a, y) :: a -> x)
+ (\ (x::a, y) :: a -> x)
</ProgramListing>
<ProgramListing>
f1 (x::c) = f1 x -- ok
- f2 = \(x::c) -> f2 x -- not ok
+ f2 = \(x::c) -> f2 x -- not ok
</ProgramListing>
<ProgramListing>
- case e of { (x::a, y) :: a -> x }
+ case e of { (x::a, y) :: a -> x }
</ProgramListing>
<ProgramListing>
- case (True,False) of { (x::a, y) -> x }
+ case (True,False) of { (x::a, y) -> x }
</ProgramListing>
<ProgramListing>
- case (True,False) of { (x::Bool, y) -> x }
+ case (True,False) of { (x::Bool, y) -> x }
</ProgramListing>
<ProgramListing>
- \ x :: a -> b -> x
+ \ x :: a -> b -> x
</ProgramListing>
<ProgramListing>
- f :: (b->b) = \(x::b) -> x
+ f :: (b->b) = \(x::b) -> x
</ProgramListing>
<Para>
<ProgramListing>
- g :: a -> a -> Bool = \x y. x==y
+ g :: a -> a -> Bool = \x y. x==y
</ProgramListing>
</Para>
<ProgramListing>
data T = forall a. MkT [a]
- f :: T -> T
+ f :: T -> T
f (MkT [t::a]) = MkT t3
where
t3::[a] = [t,t,t]
<Literal>INLINE</Literal><IndexTerm><Primary>INLINE pragma</Primary></IndexTerm> pragma, used thusly:
<ProgramListing>
-key_function :: Int -> String -> (Bool, Double)
+key_function :: Int -> String -> (Bool, Double)
#ifdef __GLASGOW_HASKELL__
{-# INLINE key_function #-}
<Para>
<ProgramListing>
-hammeredLookup :: Ord key => [(key, value)] -> key -> value
+hammeredLookup :: Ord key => [(key, value)] -> key -> value
</ProgramListing>
</Para>
specialise it as follows:
<ProgramListing>
-{-# SPECIALIZE hammeredLookup :: [(Widget, value)] -> Widget -> value #-}
+{-# SPECIALIZE hammeredLookup :: [(Widget, value)] -> Widget -> value #-}
</ProgramListing>
</Para>
An example in which the <Literal>= blah</Literal> form will Win Big:
<ProgramListing>
-toDouble :: Real a => a -> Double
+toDouble :: Real a => a -> Double
toDouble = fromRational . toRational
-{-# SPECIALIZE toDouble :: Int -> Double = i2d #-}
+{-# SPECIALIZE toDouble :: Int -> Double = i2d #-}
i2d (I# i) = D# (int2Double# i) -- uses Glasgow prim-op directly
</ProgramListing>
Same idea, except for instance declarations. For example:
<ProgramListing>
-instance (Eq a) => Eq (Foo a) where { ... usual stuff ... }
+instance (Eq a) => Eq (Foo a) where { ... usual stuff ... }
{-# SPECIALIZE instance Eq (Foo [(Int, Bar)] #-}
</ProgramListing>
For example, here is the <Literal>foldr/build</Literal> rule:
<ProgramListing>
-"fold/build" forall k z (g::forall b. (a->b->b) -> b -> b) .
+"fold/build" forall k z (g::forall b. (a->b->b) -> b -> b) .
foldr k z (build g) = g k z
</ProgramListing>
to arbitrary expressions. For example, this is <Emphasis>not</Emphasis> OK:
<ProgramListing>
-"wrong1" forall e1 e2. case True of { True -> e1; False -> e2 } = e1
+"wrong1" forall e1 e2. case True of { True -> e1; False -> e2 } = e1
"wrong2" forall f. f True = True
</ProgramListing>
-In <Literal>"wrong1"</Literal>, the LHS is not an application; in <Literal>"wrong1"</Literal>, the LHS has a pattern variable
+In <Literal>"wrong1"</Literal>, the LHS is not an application; in <Literal>"wrong2"</Literal>, the LHS has a pattern variable
in the head.
</Para>
</ListItem>
present in earlier version of GHC:
<ProgramListing>
- {-# SPECIALIZE fromIntegral :: Int8 -> Int16 = int8ToInt16 #-}
+ {-# SPECIALIZE fromIntegral :: Int8 -> Int16 = int8ToInt16 #-}
</ProgramListing>
This told GHC to use <Function>int8ToInt16</Function> instead of <Function>fromIntegral</Function> whenever
The defintion of (say) <Function>build</Function> in <FileName>PrelBase.lhs</FileName> looks llike this:
<ProgramListing>
- build :: forall a. (forall b. (a -> b -> b) -> b -> b) -> [a]
+ build :: forall a. (forall b. (a -> b -> b) -> b -> b) -> [a]
{-# INLINE build #-}
build g = g (:) []
</ProgramListing>
</Sect2>
</Sect1>
+
+<Sect1 id="generic-classes">
+<Title>Generic classes</Title>
+
+<Para>
+The ideas behind this extension are described in detail in "Derivable type classes",
+Ralf Hinze and Simon Peyton Jones, Haskell Workshop, Montreal Sept 2000, pp94-105.
+An example will give the idea:
+</Para>
+
+<ProgramListing>
+ import Generics
+
+ class Bin a where
+ toBin :: a -> [Int]
+ fromBin :: [Int] -> (a, [Int])
+
+ toBin {| Unit |} Unit = []
+ toBin {| a :+: b |} (Inl x) = 0 : toBin x
+ toBin {| a :+: b |} (Inr y) = 1 : toBin y
+ toBin {| a :*: b |} (x :*: y) = toBin x ++ toBin y
+
+ fromBin {| Unit |} bs = (Unit, bs)
+ fromBin {| a :+: b |} (0:bs) = (Inl x, bs') where (x,bs') = fromBin bs
+ fromBin {| a :+: b |} (1:bs) = (Inr y, bs') where (y,bs') = fromBin bs
+ fromBin {| a :*: b |} bs = (x :*: y, bs'') where (x,bs' ) = fromBin bs
+ (y,bs'') = fromBin bs'
+</ProgramListing>
+<Para>
+This class declaration explains how <Literal>toBin</Literal> and <Literal>fromBin</Literal>
+work for arbitrary data types. They do so by giving cases for unit, product, and sum,
+which are defined thus in the library module <Literal>Generics</Literal>:
+</Para>
+<ProgramListing>
+ data Unit = Unit
+ data a :+: b = Inl a | Inr b
+ data a :*: b = a :*: b
+</ProgramListing>
+<Para>
+Now you can make a data type into an instance of Bin like this:
+<ProgramListing>
+ instance (Bin a, Bin b) => Bin (a,b)
+ instance Bin a => Bin [a]
+</ProgramListing>
+That is, just leave off the "where" clasuse. Of course, you can put in the
+where clause and over-ride whichever methods you please.
+</Para>
+
+ <Sect2>
+ <Title> Using generics </Title>
+ <Para>To use generics you need to</para>
+ <ItemizedList>
+ <ListItem>
+ <Para>Use the <Option>-fgenerics</Option> flag.</Para>
+ </ListItem>
+ <ListItem>
+ <Para>Import the module <Literal>Generics</Literal> from the
+ <Literal>lang</Literal> package. This import brings into
+ scope the data types <Literal>Unit</Literal>,
+ <Literal>:*:</Literal>, and <Literal>:+:</Literal>. (You
+ don't need this import if you don't mention these types
+ explicitly; for example, if you are simply giving instance
+ declarations.)</Para>
+ </ListItem>
+ </ItemizedList>
+ </Sect2>
+
+<Sect2> <Title> Changes wrt the paper </Title>
+<Para>
+Note that the type constructors <Literal>:+:</Literal> and <Literal>:*:</Literal>
+can be written infix (indeed, you can now use
+any operator starting in a colon as an infix type constructor). Also note that
+the type constructors are not exactly as in the paper (Unit instead of 1, etc).
+Finally, note that the syntax of the type patterns in the class declaration
+uses "<Literal>{|</Literal>" and "<Literal>{|</Literal>" brackets; curly braces
+alone would ambiguous when they appear on right hand sides (an extension we
+anticipate wanting).
+</Para>
+</Sect2>
+
+<Sect2> <Title>Terminology and restrictions</Title>
+<Para>
+Terminology. A "generic default method" in a class declaration
+is one that is defined using type patterns as above.
+A "polymorphic default method" is a default method defined as in Haskell 98.
+A "generic class declaration" is a class declaration with at least one
+generic default method.
+</Para>
+
+<Para>
+Restrictions:
+<ItemizedList>
+<ListItem>
+<Para>
+Alas, we do not yet implement the stuff about constructor names and
+field labels.
+</Para>
+</ListItem>
+
+<ListItem>
+<Para>
+A generic class can have only one parameter; you can't have a generic
+multi-parameter class.
+</Para>
+</ListItem>
+
+<ListItem>
+<Para>
+A default method must be defined entirely using type patterns, or entirely
+without. So this is illegal:
+<ProgramListing>
+ class Foo a where
+ op :: a -> (a, Bool)
+ op {| Unit |} Unit = (Unit, True)
+ op x = (x, False)
+</ProgramListing>
+However it is perfectly OK for some methods of a generic class to have
+generic default methods and others to have polymorphic default methods.
+</Para>
+</ListItem>
+
+<ListItem>
+<Para>
+The type variable(s) in the type pattern for a generic method declaration
+scope over the right hand side. So this is legal (note the use of the type variable ``p'' in a type signature on the right hand side:
+<ProgramListing>
+ class Foo a where
+ op :: a -> Bool
+ op {| p :*: q |} (x :*: y) = op (x :: p)
+ ...
+</ProgramListing>
+</Para>
+</ListItem>
+
+<ListItem>
+<Para>
+The type patterns in a generic default method must take one of the forms:
+<ProgramListing>
+ a :+: b
+ a :*: b
+ Unit
+</ProgramListing>
+where "a" and "b" are type variables. Furthermore, all the type patterns for
+a single type constructor (<Literal>:*:</Literal>, say) must be identical; they
+must use the same type variables. So this is illegal:
+<ProgramListing>
+ class Foo a where
+ op :: a -> Bool
+ op {| a :+: b |} (Inl x) = True
+ op {| p :+: q |} (Inr y) = False
+</ProgramListing>
+The type patterns must be identical, even in equations for different methods of the class.
+So this too is illegal:
+<ProgramListing>
+ class Foo a where
+ op1 :: a -> Bool
+ op {| a :*: b |} (Inl x) = True
+
+ op2 :: a -> Bool
+ op {| p :*: q |} (Inr y) = False
+</ProgramListing>
+(The reason for this restriction is that we gather all the equations for a particular type consructor
+into a single generic instance declaration.)
+</Para>
+</ListItem>
+
+<ListItem>
+<Para>
+A generic method declaration must give a case for each of the three type constructors.
+</Para>
+</ListItem>
+
+<ListItem>
+<Para>
+The type for a generic method can be built only from:
+ <ItemizedList>
+ <ListItem> <Para> Function arrows </Para> </ListItem>
+ <ListItem> <Para> Type variables </Para> </ListItem>
+ <ListItem> <Para> Tuples </Para> </ListItem>
+ <ListItem> <Para> Arbitrary types not involving type variables </Para> </ListItem>
+ </ItemizedList>
+Here are some example type signatures for generic methods:
+<ProgramListing>
+ op1 :: a -> Bool
+ op2 :: Bool -> (a,Bool)
+ op3 :: [Int] -> a -> a
+ op4 :: [a] -> Bool
+</ProgramListing>
+Here, op1, op2, op3 are OK, but op4 is rejected, because it has a type variable
+inside a list.
+</Para>
+<Para>
+This restriction is an implementation restriction: we just havn't got around to
+implementing the necessary bidirectional maps over arbitrary type constructors.
+It would be relatively easy to add specific type constructors, such as Maybe and list,
+to the ones that are allowed.</para>
+</ListItem>
+
+<ListItem>
+<Para>
+In an instance declaration for a generic class, the idea is that the compiler
+will fill in the methods for you, based on the generic templates. However it can only
+do so if
+ <ItemizedList>
+ <ListItem>
+ <Para>
+ The instance type is simple (a type constructor applied to type variables, as in Haskell 98).
+ </Para>
+ </ListItem>
+ <ListItem>
+ <Para>
+ No constructor of the instance type has unboxed fields.
+ </Para>
+ </ListItem>
+ </ItemizedList>
+(Of course, these things can only arise if you are already using GHC extensions.)
+However, you can still give an instance declarations for types which break these rules,
+provided you give explicit code to override any generic default methods.
+</Para>
+</ListItem>
+
+</ItemizedList>
+</Para>
+
+<Para>
+The option <Option>-ddump-deriv</Option> dumps incomprehensible stuff giving details of
+what the compiler does with generic declarations.
+</Para>
+
+</Sect2>
+
+<Sect2> <Title> Another example </Title>
+<Para>
+Just to finish with, here's another example I rather like:
+<ProgramListing>
+ class Tag a where
+ nCons :: a -> Int
+ nCons {| Unit |} _ = 1
+ nCons {| a :*: b |} _ = 1
+ nCons {| a :+: b |} _ = nCons (bot::a) + nCons (bot::b)
+
+ tag :: a -> Int
+ tag {| Unit |} _ = 1
+ tag {| a :*: b |} _ = 1
+ tag {| a :+: b |} (Inl x) = tag x
+ tag {| a :+: b |} (Inr y) = nCons (bot::a) + tag y
+</ProgramListing>
+</Para>
+</Sect2>
+</Sect1>
+
+<!-- Emacs stuff:
+ ;;; Local Variables: ***
+ ;;; mode: sgml ***
+ ;;; sgml-parent-document: ("users_guide.sgml" "book" "chapter" "sect1") ***
+ ;;; End: ***
+ -->