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authorRyan Scott <ryan.gl.scott@gmail.com>2017-09-02 15:32:56 -0400
committerRyan Scott <ryan.gl.scott@gmail.com>2017-09-02 15:32:57 -0400
commit6330b0b0938bc7b27463b3bbfa0df661e4a966b1 (patch)
tree89962f2318c4d843e640b18d3a4e29e4b6517996 /libraries/template-haskell
parent590e7376de357a61555181d78f5201cf2f503aa5 (diff)
downloadhaskell-6330b0b0938bc7b27463b3bbfa0df661e4a966b1.tar.gz
Document the intricacies of ForallC variable quantification better
Summary: I recently (re-)discovered that `ForallC` quantifies different type variables depending on whether `GadtC` is present or not. This is an important enough gotcha where I feel like this fact should also be advertised in the `template-haskell` documentation itself, so this patch does just that. Test Plan: Read it Reviewers: goldfire, austin, bgamari Subscribers: rwbarton, thomie GHC Trac Issues: #13885 Differential Revision: https://phabricator.haskell.org/D3880
Diffstat (limited to 'libraries/template-haskell')
-rw-r--r--libraries/template-haskell/Language/Haskell/TH/Syntax.hs29
1 files changed, 29 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/libraries/template-haskell/Language/Haskell/TH/Syntax.hs b/libraries/template-haskell/Language/Haskell/TH/Syntax.hs
index aacc8c3db1..3087c69504 100644
--- a/libraries/template-haskell/Language/Haskell/TH/Syntax.hs
+++ b/libraries/template-haskell/Language/Haskell/TH/Syntax.hs
@@ -1833,6 +1833,35 @@ data DecidedStrictness = DecidedLazy
| DecidedUnpack
deriving (Show, Eq, Ord, Data, Generic)
+-- | A single data constructor.
+--
+-- The constructors for 'Con' can roughly be divided up into two categories:
+-- those for constructors with \"vanilla\" syntax ('NormalC', 'RecC', and
+-- 'InfixC'), and those for constructors with GADT syntax ('GadtC' and
+-- 'RecGadtC'). The 'ForallC' constructor, which quantifies additional type
+-- variables and class contexts, can surround either variety of constructor.
+-- However, the type variables that it quantifies are different depending
+-- on what constructor syntax is used:
+--
+-- * If a 'ForallC' surrounds a constructor with vanilla syntax, then the
+-- 'ForallC' will only quantify /existential/ type variables. For example:
+--
+-- @
+-- data Foo a = forall b. MkFoo a b
+-- @
+--
+-- In @MkFoo@, 'ForallC' will quantify @b@, but not @a@.
+--
+-- * If a 'ForallC' surrounds a constructor with GADT syntax, then the
+-- 'ForallC' will quantify /all/ type variables used in the constructor.
+-- For example:
+--
+-- @
+-- data Bar a b where
+-- MkBar :: (a ~ b) => c -> MkBar a b
+-- @
+--
+-- In @MkBar@, 'ForallC' will quantify @a@, @b@, and @c@.
data Con = NormalC Name [BangType] -- ^ @C Int a@
| RecC Name [VarBangType] -- ^ @C { v :: Int, w :: a }@
| InfixC BangType Name BangType -- ^ @Int :+ a@