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.. _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>`__.

- 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

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` 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.

- 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.

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

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.

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

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
  :ghc-flag:`-XDeriveLift` has been simplified to take advantage of expression
  quotations.

``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