X-Git-Url: http://git.megacz.com/?a=blobdiff_plain;f=docs%2Fusers_guide%2Fglasgow_exts.xml;h=8bca4857c5840fd55b658d0215077c8c94b2516d;hb=f7c548fd652b99e7e2e4069ecd7ce2a5821d33ae;hp=6dfda6b84fbeee125d1af01fff7ed64496cfb7b4;hpb=63006863be568d5cbb21d3198d43859c743152ce;p=ghc-hetmet.git diff --git a/docs/users_guide/glasgow_exts.xml b/docs/users_guide/glasgow_exts.xml index 6dfda6b..8bca485 100644 --- a/docs/users_guide/glasgow_exts.xml +++ b/docs/users_guide/glasgow_exts.xml @@ -241,6 +241,14 @@ documentation describes all the libraries that come with GHC. + + + Enables overloaded string literals (see ). + + + + Enables lexically-scoped type variables (see + +Overloaded string literals + + + +GHC supports overloaded string literals. Normally a +string literal has type String, but with overloaded string +literals enabled (with -foverloaded-strings) + a string literal has type (IsString a) => a. + + +This means that the usual string syntax can be used, e.g., for packed strings +and other variations of string like types. String literals behave very much +like integer literals, i.e., they can be used in both expressions and patterns. +If used in a pattern the literal with be replaced by an equality test, in the same +way as an integer literal is. + + +The class IsString is defined as: + +class IsString a where + fromString :: String -> a + +And the only predefined instance is the obvious one to make strings work as usual: + +instance IsString [Char] where + fromString cs = cs + + + +A small example: + +newtype MyString = MyString String deriving (Eq, Show) +instance IsString MyString where + fromString = MyString + +greet :: MyString -> MyString +greet "hello" = "world" +greet other = other + +main = do + print $ greet "hello" + print $ greet "fool" + + + +Note that deriving Eq is necessary for the pattern matching +to work since it gets translated into an equality comparison. + + + @@ -4167,6 +4226,14 @@ Tim Sheard is going to expand it.) (It would make sense to do so, but it's hard to implement.) + + Furthermore, you can only run a function at compile time if it is imported + from another module that is not part of a mutually-recursive group of modules + that includes the module currently being compiled. For example, when compiling module A, + you can only run Template Haskell functions imported from B if B does not import A (directly or indirectly). + The reason should be clear: to run B we must compile and run A, but we are currently type-checking A. + + The flag -ddump-splices shows the expansion of all top-level splices as they happen. @@ -5899,12 +5966,6 @@ The following are good consumers: - length - - - - - ++ (on its first argument)