2.3. Version 9.4.1

2.3.1. Compiler

• New -Wredundant-strictness-flags that checks for strictness flags (!) applied to unlifted types, which are always strict.
• A new type of plugin: defaulting plugins. These plugins can propose defaults for ambiguous variables that would otherwise cause errors just like the built-in defaulting mechanism.

2.3.2. base library

• GHC.Exts.magicDict has been renamed to withDict and given a more specific type:

  withDict :: forall {rr :: RuntimeRep} st dt (r :: TYPE rr). st -> (dt => r) -> r
  

  Unlike magicDict, withDict can be used without defining an intermediate data type. For example, the withTypeable function from the Data.Typeable module can now be defined as:

  withTypeable :: forall k (a :: k) rep (r :: TYPE rep). ()
               => TypeRep a -> (Typeable a => r) -> r
  withTypeable rep k = withDict @(TypeRep a) @(Typeable a) rep k
  

  Note that the explicit type applications are required, as the call to withDict would be ambiguous otherwise.

2.3.3. ghc-prim library

• GHC.Exts.mkWeak#, GHC.Exts.mkWeakNoFinalizer#, GHC.Exts.touch# and GHC.Exts.keepAlive# are now levity-polymorphic instead of representation-polymorphic. For instance:

  mkWeakNoFinalizer#
    :: forall {l :: Levity} (a :: TYPE (BoxedRep l)) (b :: Type)
    .  a -> b -> State# RealWorld -> (# State# RealWorld, Weak# b #)
  

  That is, the type signature now quantifies over a variable of type GHC.Exts.Levity instead of GHC.Exts.RuntimeRep. In addition, this variable is now inferred, instead of specified, meaning that it is no longer eligible for visible type application.

• The GHC.Exts.RuntimeRep parameter to GHC.Exts.raise# is now inferred:

  raise# :: forall (a :: Type) {r :: RuntimeRep} (b :: TYPE r). a -> b
  

• GHC.Exts.reallyUnsafePtrEquality# has been made more general, as it is now both levity-polymorphic and heterogeneous:

  reallyUnsafePtrEquality#
    :: forall {l :: Levity} (a :: TYPE (BoxedRep l))
              {k :: Levity} (b :: TYPE (BoxedRep k))
    . a -> b -> Int#
  

  This means that GHC.Exts.reallyUnsafePtrEquality# can be used on primitive arrays such as GHC.Exts.Array# and GHC.Exts.ByteArray#. It can also be used on values of different types, without needing to call GHC.Exts.unsafeCoerce#.

• Added GHC.Exts.reallyUnsafePtrEquality which recovers the previous behaviour of GHC.Exts.reallyUnsafePtrEquality#:

  reallyUnsafePtrEquality :: forall (a :: Type). a -> a -> Int#
  

• Added GHC.Exts.sameArray#, GHC.Exts.sameSmallArray#, GHC.Exts.sameByteArray# and GHC.Exts.sameArrayArray#:

  sameArray# :: Array# a -> Array# a -> Int#
  sameSmallArray# :: SmallArray# a -> SmallArray# a -> Int#
  sameByteArray# :: ByteArray# -> ByteArray# -> Int#
  sameArrayArray# :: ArrayArray# -> ArrayArray# -> Int#
  

2.3.4. ghc library

• A new GHC.Hs.Syn.Type module has been introduced which defines functions for computing the Type of an HsExpr GhcTc in a pure fashion. The hsLitType and hsPatType functions that previously lived in GHC.Tc.Utils.Zonk have been moved to this module.
• A Typeable constraint has been added to fromStaticPtr in the class GHC.StaticPtr.IsStatic. GHC automatically wraps each use of the static keyword with fromStaticPtr. Because static requires its argument to be an instance of Typeable, fromStaticPtr can safely carry this constraint as well.