Re: [GHC] #12778: Expose variables bound in quotations to reify

24 Apr 2017

      #12778: Expose variables bound in quotations to reify
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        Reporter:                    |                Owner:  (none)
  facundo.dominguez                  |
            Type:  bug               |               Status:  patch
        Priority:  normal            |            Milestone:
       Component:  Template Haskell  |              Version:  8.0.1
      Resolution:                    |             Keywords:  template-
                                     |  haskell reify
Operating System:  Unknown/Multiple  |         Architecture:
                                     |  Unknown/Multiple
 Type of failure:  None/Unknown      |            Test Case:
      Blocked By:                    |             Blocking:
 Related Tickets:                    |  Differential Rev(s):  Phab:D3003
       Wiki Page:                    |
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Comment (by mboes):

 In the attached Diff, Simon PJ admits to, understandably, being very
 confused by the original use case. The description in this ticket doesn't
 expatiate that, so here's a quick summary.

 inline-java defines the `java` quasiquoter, which stands for a call to a
 *typed* static Java method (with the antiquotation variables being the
 arguments):

 {{{
 jadd :: Int32 -> Int32 -> IO Int32
 jadd x y = do
   [java| { return $x + $y } |]
 }}}

 At compile time, we need to add somewhere the definition of this static
 method. Something like:

 {{{
 public static int wrapperFun(int x, int y) {
   return x + y;
 }
 }}}

 At runtime, we need to call this method. Note that the user doesn't need
 to specify the Java types of antiquotation variables, nor the Java return
 type. Those are inferred from the types in the Haskell context of
 quasiquote (`Int32` maps to Java's `int`, `Bool` maps to `boolean` etc).
 We use `addModFinalizer` to compute the signature of the Java method at
 the very end of type checking a module, at a time when the full types of
 all the local variables in all contexts are known. Getting the type of
 antiquotation variables this way works fine in 8.0.2. But getting the
 expected return type of a quasiquotation and inferring a Java return type
 is not currently possible.

 So e.g. above, we can know that `x` and `y` are `int`, because we know
 that Haskell side `x` and `y` have type `Int32`. But we can't know that
 the return type is also `int`, because even if the quasiquote expansion is
 something like

 {{{
 let result = <java method call> in result
 }}}

 The type of `result` isn't available, even at the point where module
 finalizers are executed.

--
Ticket URL: http://ghc.haskell.org/trac/ghc/ticket/12778#comment:8
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