Re: [GHC] #13328: Foldable, Functor, and Traversable deriving handle phantom types badly

6 Mar 2017

      #13328: Foldable, Functor, and Traversable deriving handle phantom types badly
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        Reporter:  dfeuer            |                Owner:  (none)
            Type:  bug               |               Status:  new
        Priority:  normal            |            Milestone:  8.4.1
       Component:  Compiler          |              Version:  8.1
      Resolution:                    |             Keywords:  deriving-perf
Operating System:  Unknown/Multiple  |         Architecture:
 Type of failure:  Runtime           |  Unknown/Multiple
  performance bug                    |            Test Case:
      Blocked By:                    |             Blocking:
 Related Tickets:                    |  Differential Rev(s):
       Wiki Page:                    |
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Comment (by RyanGlScott):

 Two more thoughts to consider.

 One: how should this interact with your feature request in #13117? That
 is, you had previously requested that if you wrote this:

 {{{#!hs
 data V a deriving Functor
 }}}

 then GHC should generate this:

 {{{#!hs
 instance Functor V where
   fmap _ x = case x of {}
 }}}

 But `V`'s type parameter is phantom here, so you could just as well
 implement it like this (as Eric Mertens originally pointed out in
 https://mail.haskell.org/pipermail/libraries/2017-January/027603.html):

 {{{#!hs
 instance Functor V where
   fmap _ = coerce
 }}}

 Which choice should we make here?

 Two (a follow-up question to comment:1, after reading Eric's comment about
 role annotations in
 https://mail.haskell.org/pipermail/libraries/2017-January/027603.html):
 consider this code:

 {{{#!hs
 data Foo a = Foo
 deriving instance Foldable Foo
 }}}

 In this scenario, the type parameter to `Foo` is phantom, so the generated
 `Foldable` instance is:

 {{{#!hs
 instance Foldable Foo where
   foldMap _ _ = mempty
 }}}

 Now what happens if you add a role annotation to `Foo`?

 {{{#!hs
 type role Foo nominal
 data Foo a = Foo
 deriving instance Foldable Foo
 }}}

 Now, since `Foo`'s type parameter is no longer phantom, the generated
 `Foldable` instance will be:

 {{{#!hs
 instance Foldable Foo where
   foldMap _ Foo = mempty
 }}}

 That is to say, the choice of role can affect what the strictness of
 `foldMap` will be. Is this desirable?

--
Ticket URL: http://ghc.haskell.org/trac/ghc/ticket/13328#comment:4
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