#9163: Ptr should have a phantom role ------------------------------------+------------------------------------- Reporter: simonpj | Owner: Type: bug | Status: new Priority: normal | Milestone: Component: Compiler | Version: 7.8.2 Keywords: | Operating System: Unknown/Multiple Architecture: Unknown/Multiple | Type of failure: None/Unknown Difficulty: Unknown | Test Case: Blocked By: | Blocking: Related Tickets: | ------------------------------------+------------------------------------- In `GHC.Ptr` we see {{{ type role Ptr representational data Ptr a = Ptr Addr# deriving (Eq, Ord) }}} with no comments. Why is `Ptr` representational? In the same module we have `castPtr`: {{{ castPtr :: Ptr a -> Ptr b castPtr (Ptr addr) = Ptr addr }}} which unpacks and repacks a `Ptr`. If `Ptr` was phantom, we could use `coerce`. And that in turn would actually make a lot of code more efficient – there are lots of calls to `castPtr`. Specifically, in `nofib`, I tried implementing `castPtr` with `unsafeCoerce`. Then I found: * 12% less allocation in `reverse-complem` * 7.3% less allocation in `fasta`. * Binary sizes fell 0.1%. Both these benchmarks are ones that do a ''lot'' of I/O, and it turns out that `GHC.IO.Handle.Text.$wa1` has a `castPtr` that (all by itself) accounts for 12% of `reverse-complem`'s total allocation! So making `castPtr` free is good. -- Ticket URL: http://ghc.haskell.org/trac/ghc/ticket/9163 GHC http://www.haskell.org/ghc/ The Glasgow Haskell Compiler