+<title>Record Constructors</title>
+
+<para>
+GHC allows existentials to be used with records syntax as well. For example:
+
+<programlisting>
+data Counter a = forall self. NewCounter
+ { _this :: self
+ , _inc :: self -> self
+ , _display :: self -> IO ()
+ , tag :: a
+ }
+</programlisting>
+Here <literal>tag</literal> is a public field, with a well-typed selector
+function <literal>tag :: Counter a -> a</literal>. The <literal>self</literal>
+type is hidden from the outside; any attempt to apply <literal>_this</literal>,
+<literal>_inc</literal> or <literal>_output</literal> as functions will raise a
+compile-time error. In other words, <emphasis>GHC defines a record selector function
+only for fields whose type does not mention the existentially-quantified variables</emphasis>.
+(This example used an underscore in the fields for which record selectors
+will not be defined, but that is only programming style; GHC ignores them.)
+</para>
+
+<para>
+To make use of these hidden fields, we need to create some helper functions:
+
+<programlisting>
+inc :: Counter a -> Counter a
+inc (NewCounter x i d t) = NewCounter
+ { _this = i x, _inc = i, _display = d, tag = t }
+
+display :: Counter a -> IO ()
+display NewCounter{ _this = x, _display = d } = d x
+</programlisting>
+
+Now we can define counters with different underlying implementations:
+
+<programlisting>
+counterA :: Counter String
+counterA = NewCounter
+ { _this = 0, _inc = (1+), _display = print, tag = "A" }
+
+counterB :: Counter String
+counterB = NewCounter
+ { _this = "", _inc = ('#':), _display = putStrLn, tag = "B" }
+
+main = do
+ display (inc counterA) -- prints "1"
+ display (inc (inc counterB)) -- prints "##"
+</programlisting>
+
+In GADT declarations (see <xref linkend="gadt"/>), the explicit
+<literal>forall</literal> may be omitted. For example, we can express
+the same <literal>Counter a</literal> using GADT:
+
+<programlisting>
+data Counter a where
+ NewCounter { _this :: self
+ , _inc :: self -> self
+ , _display :: self -> IO ()
+ , tag :: a
+ }
+ :: Counter a
+</programlisting>
+
+At the moment, record update syntax is only supported for Haskell 98 data types,
+so the following function does <emphasis>not</emphasis> work:
+
+<programlisting>
+-- This is invalid; use explicit NewCounter instead for now
+setTag :: Counter a -> a -> Counter a
+setTag obj t = obj{ tag = t }
+</programlisting>
+
+</para>
+
+</sect4>
+
+
+<sect4>