Re: [Haskell-cafe] Small question

G'day all. Quoting Stefan O'Rear :

In general, GHC doesn't do "unboxing". Instead it has a simpler and more general approach, [...]

I'm not convinced that the phrase "more general" is appropriate here. :-)

As far as actual heap usage goes, GHC creates single static values for all 0-argument constructors; so all Bool WHNFs are one of two addresses, one for True and one for False.

And, of course, if it's a strict argument, then the values stored are ALWAYS one of two possibilities. So as a matter of curiosity, would there be any advantage at all for "unboxing" enumeration types? (Apart from, I suppose, the possibility of using fewer than 32/64 bits to store a flag.) Cheers, Andrew Bromage