There are bytearray literal proposals [1,2]. My older proposal [2] idea that the literal prim literal strings could generate also ByteArray# and (# Int#, Addr# #), but as it was proposing to change how literal Haskell Strings are compiled the proposal got stalled. The newew proposal [1] is tagged as "needs revision". It doesn't include(# Int#, Addr# #), but those are easy to get from ByteArray# which has negligible overhead. I haven't followed the discussion so I'm not sure what syntax it actually proposes (description and proposal text differ) and what are the needed revisions. I'm cc-ing Andew, he knows better :) - Oleg [1] https://github.com/ghc-proposals/ghc-proposals/pull/292 [2] https://github.com/ghc-proposals/ghc-proposals/pull/135 On 25.8.2021 18.31, Viktor Dukhovni wrote:
On Tue, Aug 24, 2021 at 09:03:30AM -0400, Viktor Dukhovni wrote:
I originally wrote:
Is there any GHC syntax for constructing a primitive string literal with a known (not hand coded) byte count? With `"some bytes"#` I get just the `Addr#` pointer, but not the size.
If there's nothing available, would it be reasonable to introduce a new syntax? Perhaps:
"some bytes"## :: (# Addr#, Int# #) But neglected to mention that I knew about `cstringLength#`, but found it wanting, because it does not support octet-strings with embedded NUL characters:
Sadly, that does not work when the primitive octet string contains internal NUL bytes.
λ> :set -package ghc-prim λ> :set -XMagicHash λ> import GHC.CString λ> import GHC.Int λ> λ> I# (cstringLength# "foobar\xa0"#) 7 λ> I# (cstringLength# "foo\0bar\xa0"#) 3 If there isn't some other extant work-around, any feedback on my proposal of a new syntax for a primitive unboxed (address, length) pair:
"some bytes"## :: (# Addr#, Int# #)