David I'm deeply puzzled atomicModifyMutVar2#. I have read the proposalhttps://github.com/ghc-proposals/ghc-proposals/blob/master/proposals/0149-at..., and the comments in primops.txt.pp (reproduced below). Question 1 I think the "real" type of atomicModifyMutVar2 is atomicModifyMutVar2# :: MutVar# s a -> (a -> (a,b)) -> State# s -> (# State# s, a, (a, b) #) Nowhere is this explicitly stated, but I believe that the intended semantics of a call case (atomicModifyMutVar2# mv f s) of (# s', x, r #) -> blah Then, suppose the old value of the MutVar was 'old' * The primop builds a thunk t = f old * The new value of the mutable variable is (fst t) * The result r is t * The result x is old Question: is that correct? We should state it explicitly. Question 2 Next question: Why does f have to return a pair? So far as I can tell, it's only so that a client can force it. The 'b' part never seems to play a useful role. So we could equally well have had atomicModifyMutVar2# :: MutVar# s a -> (a -> Box a) -> State# s -> (# State# s, a, Unit a #) where Unit is defined in Data.Tuple data Unit a = Unit a Now you can force the result of (f old), just as with a pair. But the 'b' would no longer complicate matters. Question: is the 'b' in the pair significant? Or could we use Unit? Question 3 In the comments below you say "but we don't know about pairs here". Are you sure? What stops you importing Data.Tuple into GHC.Prim? This fancy footwork is one more complication, if it could be avoided. Thanks Simon primop AtomicModifyMutVar2Op "atomicModifyMutVar2#" GenPrimOp MutVar# s a -> (a -> c) -> State# s -> (# State# s, a, c #) { Modify the contents of a {\tt MutVar\#}, returning the previous contents and the result of applying the given function to the previous contents. Note that this isn't strictly speaking the correct type for this function; it should really be {\tt MutVar\# s a -> (a -> (a,b)) -> State\# s -> (\# State\# s, a, (a, b) \#)}, but we don't know about pairs here. } with out_of_line = True has_side_effects = True can_fail = True