[GHC] #13698: Add a more complete example for the special SPEC argument to the user guide

14 May 2017

      #13698: Add a more complete example for the special SPEC argument to the user guide
-------------------------------------+-------------------------------------
           Reporter:  mpickering     |             Owner:  (none)
               Type:  task           |            Status:  new
           Priority:  normal         |         Milestone:
          Component:  Compiler       |           Version:  8.0.1
           Keywords:  newcomer       |  Operating System:  Unknown/Multiple
       Architecture:                 |   Type of failure:  None/Unknown
  Unknown/Multiple                   |
          Test Case:                 |        Blocked By:
           Blocking:                 |   Related Tickets:  SpecConstr
Differential Rev(s):                 |         Wiki Page:
-------------------------------------+-------------------------------------
 In the section for `-fspec-constr` in the user guide there is an example
 of how to use `SPEC` to force a loop to be unrolled by spec constr.

 However, this argument doesn't do anything until `foldl` is called with a
 specific argument. It wasn't clear to me exactly how this worked as the
 example was incomplete. Below is a complete file which shows how the
 optimisation unrolls the list completely such that `res2 = 6` in core.

 {{{
 {-# LANGUAGE BangPatterns #-}
 {-# LANGUAGE ExistentialQuantification #-}
 module Foo where
 import GHC.Types

 data Stream a = forall s.
                 Stream !(s -> Step a s)  -- a stepper function
                 !s                       -- an initial state

 data Step a s = Yield a !s
                | Skip    !s
                | Done

 s2 = Stream s [1,2,3]

 s [] = Done
 s (x:xs) = Yield x xs

 res2 = Foo.foldl (+) 0 s2

 foldl :: (a -> b -> a) -> a -> Stream b -> a
 {-# INLINE foldl #-}
 foldl f z (Stream step s) = foldl_loop SPEC z s
     where
       foldl_loop !sPEC z s = case step s of
                               Yield x s' -> foldl_loop sPEC (f z x) s'
                               Skip  s'     -> foldl_loop sPEC z s'
                               Done -> z
 }}}

--
Ticket URL: http://ghc.haskell.org/trac/ghc/ticket/13698
GHC http://www.haskell.org/ghc/
The Glasgow Haskell Compiler