X-Git-Url: http://git.megacz.com/?a=blobdiff_plain;f=GHC%2FST.lhs;h=12ec5caee94fcbdc28378ee9eef25ae2a1a99405;hb=af7a1e96efe4aa3f10cbd29e9989a7fc695d7ff9;hp=65bf8357a38ea20babb7a9a63a9d7caa4366c57b;hpb=9e8f5f0cfba9ca5ebb847704573617a2ddf908f2;p=haskell-directory.git

diff --git a/GHC/ST.lhs b/GHC/ST.lhs
index 65bf835..12ec5ca 100644
--- a/GHC/ST.lhs
+++ b/GHC/ST.lhs
@@ -33,6 +33,18 @@ The state-transformer monad proper.  By default the monad is strict;
 too many people got bitten by space leaks when it was lazy.
 
 \begin{code}
+-- | The strict state-transformer monad.
+-- A computation of type @'ST' s a@ transforms an internal state indexed
+-- by @s@, and returns a value of type @a@.
+-- The @s@ parameter is either
+--
+-- * an unstantiated type variable (inside invocations of 'runST'), or
+--
+-- * 'RealWorld' (inside invocations of 'Control.Monad.ST.stToIO').
+--
+-- It serves to keep the internal states of different invocations
+-- of 'runST' separate from each other and from invocations of
+-- 'Control.Monad.ST.stToIO'.
 newtype ST s a = ST (STRep s a)
 type STRep s a = State# s -> (# State# s, a #)
 
@@ -70,6 +82,9 @@ unsafeInterleaveST (ST m) = ST ( \ s ->
     (# s, r #)
   )
 
+-- | Allow the result of a state transformer computation to be used (lazily)
+-- inside the computation.
+-- Note that if @f@ is strict, @'fixST' f = _|_@.
 fixST :: (a -> ST s a) -> ST s a
 fixST k = ST $ \ s ->
     let ans       = liftST (k r) s
@@ -119,6 +134,10 @@ All calls to @f@ will share a {\em single} array!  End SLPJ 95/04.
 -- The INLINE prevents runSTRep getting inlined in *this* module
 -- so that it is still visible when runST is inlined in an importing
 -- module.  Regrettably delicate.  runST is behaving like a wrapper.
+
+-- | Return the value computed by a state transformer computation.
+-- The @forall@ ensures that the internal state used by the 'ST'
+-- computation is inaccessible to the rest of the program.
 runST :: (forall s. ST s a) -> a
 runST st = runSTRep (case st of { ST st_rep -> st_rep })