path: root/docs/users_guide/8.10.1-notes.rst

.. _release-8-10-1:

Release notes for version 8.10.1
================================

The significant changes to the various parts of the compiler are listed in the
following sections.


Highlights
----------

- The :extension:`UnliftedNewtypes` extension.

Full details
------------

Language
~~~~~~~~

- Kind variables are no longer implicitly quantified when an explicit ``forall`` is used, see
  `GHC proposal #24
  <https://github.com/ghc-proposals/ghc-proposals/blob/master/proposals/0024-no-kind-vars.rst>`__.
  :ghc-flag:`-Wimplicit-kind-vars` is now obsolete.

- Kind variables are no longer implicitly quantified in constructor declarations: ::

    data T a        = T1 (S (a :: k)) | forall (b::k). T2 (S b)  -- no longer accepted
    data T (a :: k) = T1 (S (a :: k)) | forall (b::k). T2 (S b)  -- still accepted

- Implicitly quantified kind variables are no longer put in front of other variables: ::

    f :: Proxy (a :: k) -> Proxy (b :: j)

    ghci> :t +v f   -- old order:
    f :: forall k j (a :: k) (b :: j). Proxy a -> Proxy b

    ghci> :t +v f   -- new order:
    f :: forall k (a :: k) j (b :: j). Proxy a -> Proxy b

  This is a breaking change for users of :extension:`TypeApplications`.

- In type synonyms and type family equations, free variables on the RHS are no longer
  implicitly quantified unless used in an outermost kind annotation: ::

    type T = Just (Nothing :: Maybe a)         -- no longer accepted
    type T = Just Nothing :: Maybe (Maybe a)   -- still accepted

- A new extension :extension:`StandaloneKindSignatures` allows one to explicitly
  specify the kind of a type constructor, as proposed in `GHC proposal #54
  <https://github.com/ghc-proposals/ghc-proposals/blob/master/proposals/0054-kind-signatures.rst>`__: ::

    type TypeRep :: forall k. k -> Type
    data TypeRep a where
      TyInt   :: TypeRep Int
      TyMaybe :: TypeRep Maybe
      TyApp   :: TypeRep a -> TypeRep b -> TypeRep (a b)

  Analogous to function type signatures, a :ref:`standalone kind signature
  <standalone-kind-signatures>` enables polymorphic recursion. This feature is
  a replacement for :extension:`CUSKs`.

- GHC now parses visible, dependent quantifiers (as proposed in
  `GHC proposal 35
  <https://github.com/ghc-proposals/ghc-proposals/blob/master/proposals/0035-forall-arrow.rst>`__),
  such as the following: ::

    data Proxy :: forall k -> k -> Type

  See the :ref:`section on explicit kind quantification
  <explicit-kind-quantification>` for more details.

- Type variables in associated type family default declarations can now be
  explicitly bound with a ``forall`` when :extension:`ExplicitForAll` is
  enabled, as in the following example: ::

    class C a where
      type T a b
      type forall a b. T a b = Either a b

  This has a couple of knock-on consequences:

  - Wildcard patterns are now permitted on the left-hand sides of default
    declarations, whereas they were rejected by previous versions of GHC.

  - It used to be the case that default declarations supported occurrences of
    left-hand side arguments with higher-rank kinds, such as in the following
    example: ::

      class C a where
        type T a (f :: forall k. k -> Type)
        type T a (f :: forall k. k -> Type) = f Int

    This will no longer work unless ``f`` is explicitly quantified with a
    ``forall``, like so: ::

      class C a where
        type T a (f :: forall k. k -> Type)
        type forall a (f :: forall k. k -> Type).
             T a f = f Int

- A new extension :extension:`UnliftedNewtypes` that relaxes restrictions
  around what kinds of types can appear inside of the data constructor
  for a ``newtype``. This was proposed in
  `GHC proposal #13 <https://github.com/ghc-proposals/ghc-proposals/blob/master/proposals/0013-unlifted-newtypes.rst>`__.

- A new extension :extension:`ImportQualifiedPost` allows the syntax
  ``import M qualified``, that is, to annotate a module as qualified by
  writing ``qualified`` after the module name.
  This was proposed in `GHC proposal #49 <https://github.com/ghc-proposals/ghc-proposals/blob/master/proposals/0049-module-qualified-syntax.rst>`__.

- New flag :ghc-flag:`-Wderiving-defaults` that controls a warning
  message when both :extension:`DeriveAnyClass` and
  :extension:`GeneralizedNewtypeDeriving` are enabled and no explicit
  deriving strategy is in use. The warning is enabled by default and
  has been present in earlier GHC versions but without the option of
  disabling it.  For example, this code would trigger the warning: ::

    class C a
    newtype T a = MkT a deriving C

- GHC now performs more validity checks on inferred type signatures. One
  consequence of this change is that some programs that used to be accepted
  will no longer compile without enabling the required language extensions.
  For example, in these two modules: ::

    {-# LANGUAGE RankNTypes #-}
    module A where

      foo :: (forall a. a -> a) -> b -> b
      foo f x = f x

    module B where

      import A

      bar = foo

  Notice that ``A`` enables :ghc-flag:`-XRankNTypes`, but ``B`` does not.
  Previous versions of GHC would allow ``bar`` to typecheck, even though its
  inferred type is higher-rank. GHC 8.10 will now reject this, as one must now
  enable :ghc-flag:`-XRankNTypes` in ``B`` to accept the inferred type signature.

- Type family dependencies (also known as injective type families)
  sometimes now need ``-XUndecidableInstances`` in order to be
  accepted. Here is an example::

    type family F1 a = r | r -> a
    type family F2 a = r | r -> a
    type instance F2 [a] = Maybe (F1 a)

  Because GHC needs to look under a type family to see that ``a`` is determined
  by the right-hand side of ``F2``\'s equation, this now needs ``-XUndecidableInstances``.
  The problem is very much akin to its need to detect some functional dependencies.
    
Compiler
~~~~~~~~

- Add new flags :ghc-flag:`-Wunused-record-wildcards` and
  :ghc-flag:`-Wredundant-record-wildcards`  which warn users when they have
  redundant or unused uses of a record wildcard match.

- Calls to ``memset`` and ``memcpy`` are now unrolled more aggressively
  and the produced code is more efficient on `x86_64` with added
  support for 64-bit ``MOV``\s. In particular, ``setByteArray#`` and
  ``copyByteArray#`` calls that were not optimized before, now will
  be. See :ghc-ticket:`16052`.
- GHC's runtime linker no longer uses global state. This allows programs
  that use the GHC API to safely use multiple GHC sessions in a single
  process, as long as there are no native dependencies that rely on
  global state.

- When loading modules that use :extension:`UnboxedTuples` or
  :extension:`UnboxedSums` into GHCi, it will now automatically enable
  :ghc-flag:`-fobject-code` for these modules and all modules they depend on.
  Before this change, attempting to load these modules into the interpreter
  would just fail, and the only convenient workaround was to enable
  :ghc-flag:`-fobject-code` for all modules. See the
  :ref:`GHCi FAQ <ghci-faq>` for further details.

- The eventlog now contains events for biographical and retainer profiling.
  The biographical profiling events all appear at the end of the eventlog but
  the sample start event contains a timestamp of when the census occurred.
  The retainer profiling events are emitted using the standard events.

- The eventlog now logs the cost centre stack on each sample. This enables
  the ``.prof`` file to be partially reconstructed from the eventlog.

- Add new flag :ghc-flag:`-fkeep-going` which makes the compiler
  continue as far as it can despite errors.

- Deprecated flag ``-fwarn-hi-shadowing`` because it was not
  implemented correctly, and appears to be largely unused. This flag
  will be removed in a later version of GHC.

- Windows bindist has been updated to GCC 9.2 and binutils 2.32.  These binaries have
  been patched to no longer have have the MAX_PATH limit.  Windows users should no longer
  have any issues with long path names.

- Introduce ``DynFlags`` plugins, that allow users to modidy the ``DynFlags``
  that GHC is going to use when processing a set of files, from plugins.
  They can be used for applying tiny configuration changes, registering hooks
  and much more. See the :ref:`user guide <dynflags_plugins>` for
  more details as well as an example.

GHCi
~~~~

- Added a command :ghci-cmd:`:instances` to show the class instances available for a type.

- Added new debugger commands :ghci-cmd:`:disable` and :ghci-cmd:`:enable` to
  disable and re-enable breakpoints.

- Improved command name resolution with option ``!``. For example, ``:k!``
  resolves to ``:kind!``.

Runtime system
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

- The runtime system linker now marks loaded code as non-writable (see
  :ghc-ticket:`14069`) on all tier-1 platforms. This is necesaary for
  out-of-the-box compatibility with OpenBSD and macOS Catalina (see
  :ghc-ticket:`17353`)

Template Haskell
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

- The ``Lift`` typeclass is now levity-polymorphic and has a ``liftTyped``
  method. Previously disallowed instances for unboxed tuples, unboxed sums, an
  primitive unboxed types have also been added. Finally, the code generated by
  :extension:`DeriveLift` has been simplified to take advantage of expression
  quotations.

- Using ``TupleT 1``, ``TupE [exp]``, or ``TupP [pat]`` will now produce unary
  tuples (i.e., involving the ``Unit`` type from ``GHC.Tuple``) instead of
  silently dropping the parentheses. This brings Template Haskell's treatment
  of boxed tuples in line with that of unboxed tuples, as ``UnboxedTupleT`,
  ``UnboxedTupE``, and ``UnboxedTupP`` also produce unary unboxed tuples
  (i.e., ``Unit#``) when applied to only one argument.

- GHC's constraint solver now solves constraints in each top-level group
  sooner. This has practical consequences for Template Haskell, as TH splices
  necessarily separate top-level groups. For example, the following program
  would compile in previous versions of GHC, but not in GHC 8.10: ::

    data T = MkT

    tStr :: String
    tStr = show MkT

    $(return [])

    instance Show T where
      show MkT = "MkT"

  This is because each top-level group's constraints are solved before moving
  on to the next, and since the top-level group for ``tStr`` appears before the
  top-level group that defines a ``Show T`` instance, GHC 8.10 will throw an
  error about a missing ``Show T`` instance in the expression ``show MkT``. The
  issue can be fixed by rearranging the order of declarations. For instance,
  the following will compile: ::

    data T = MkT

    instance Show T where
      show MkT = "MkT"

    $(return [])

    tStr :: String
    tStr = show MkT

``ghc-prim`` library
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

- Add new ``bitReverse#`` primops that, for a ``Word`` of 8, 16, 32 or 64 bits,
  reverse the order of its bits e.g. ``0b110001`` becomes ``0b100011``.
  These primitives use optimized machine instructions when available.

``ghc`` library
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

``base`` library
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Build system
~~~~~~~~~~~~

Included libraries
------------------

The package database provided with this distribution also contains a number of
packages other than GHC itself. See the changelogs provided with these packages
for further change information.

.. ghc-package-list::

    libraries/array/array.cabal:             Dependency of ``ghc`` library
    libraries/base/base.cabal:               Core library
    libraries/binary/binary.cabal:           Dependency of ``ghc`` library
    libraries/bytestring/bytestring.cabal:   Dependency of ``ghc`` library
    libraries/Cabal/Cabal/Cabal.cabal:       Dependency of ``ghc-pkg`` utility
    libraries/containers/containers/containers.cabal:   Dependency of ``ghc`` library
    libraries/deepseq/deepseq.cabal:         Dependency of ``ghc`` library
    libraries/directory/directory.cabal:     Dependency of ``ghc`` library
    libraries/filepath/filepath.cabal:       Dependency of ``ghc`` library
    compiler/ghc.cabal:                      The compiler itself
    libraries/ghci/ghci.cabal:               The REPL interface
    libraries/ghc-boot/ghc-boot.cabal:       Internal compiler library
    libraries/ghc-boot-th/ghc-boot-th.cabal: Internal compiler library
    libraries/ghc-compact/ghc-compact.cabal: Core library
    libraries/ghc-heap/ghc-heap.cabal:       GHC heap-walking library
    libraries/ghc-prim/ghc-prim.cabal:       Core library
    libraries/haskeline/haskeline.cabal:     Dependency of ``ghci`` executable
    libraries/hpc/hpc.cabal:                 Dependency of ``hpc`` executable
    libraries/integer-gmp/integer-gmp.cabal: Core library
    libraries/libiserv/libiserv.cabal:       Internal compiler library
    libraries/mtl/mtl.cabal:                 Dependency of ``Cabal`` library
    libraries/parsec/parsec.cabal:           Dependency of ``Cabal`` library
    libraries/pretty/pretty.cabal:           Dependency of ``ghc`` library
    libraries/process/process.cabal:         Dependency of ``ghc`` library
    libraries/stm/stm.cabal:                 Dependency of ``haskeline`` library
    libraries/template-haskell/template-haskell.cabal:     Core library
    libraries/terminfo/terminfo.cabal:       Dependency of ``haskeline`` library
    libraries/text/text.cabal:               Dependency of ``Cabal`` library
    libraries/time/time.cabal:               Dependency of ``ghc`` library
    libraries/transformers/transformers.cabal: Dependency of ``ghc`` library
    libraries/unix/unix.cabal:               Dependency of ``ghc`` library
    libraries/Win32/Win32.cabal:             Dependency of ``ghc`` library
    libraries/xhtml/xhtml.cabal:             Dependency of ``haddock`` executable