%
\section{Fast strings}
-Compact representations of character strings with
-unique identifiers (hash-cons'ish).
+FastString: A compact, hash-consed, representation of character strings.
+ Comparison is O(1), and you can get a Unique from them.
+ Generated by the FSLIT macro
+ Turn into SDoc with Outputable.ftext
+
+LitString: Just a wrapper for the Addr# of a C string (Ptr CChar).
+ Practically no operations
+ Outputing them is fast
+ Generated by the SLIT macro
+ Turn into SDoc with Outputable.ptext
+
+Use LitString unless you want the facilities of FastString
\begin{code}
module FastString
-- LitStrings, here for convenience only.
type LitString = Ptr ()
--- ToDo: make it a Ptr when we don't have to support 4.08 any more
mkLitString# :: Addr# -> LitString
mkLitString# a# = Ptr a#