Distribution.Client.Compat.Prelude

deepseq: fully evaluates the first argument, before returning the second.

The name deepseq is used to illustrate the relationship to seq: where seq is shallow in the sense that it only evaluates the top level of its argument, deepseq traverses the entire data structure evaluating it completely.

deepseq can be useful for forcing pending exceptions, eradicating space leaks, or forcing lazy I/O to happen. It is also useful in conjunction with parallel Strategies (see the parallel package).

There is no guarantee about the ordering of evaluation. The implementation may evaluate the components of the structure in any order or in parallel. To impose an actual order on evaluation, use pseq from Control.Parallel in the parallel package.

Right to left function composition.

prop> (f . g) x = f (g x)

prop> f . id = f = id . f

Examples

>>> map ((*2) . length) [[], [0, 1, 2], [0]][0,6,2]

>>> foldr (.) id [(+1), (*3), (^3)] 225

>>> let (...) = (.).(.) in ((*2)...(+)) 5 1030

Basic numeric class.

The Haskell Report defines no laws for Num. However, (+) and (*) are customarily expected to define a ring and have the following properties:

Associativity of (+)

(x + y) + z

=

x + (y + z)

Commutativity of (+)

x + y

=

y + x

fromInteger 0 is the additive identity

x + fromInteger 0

=

x

negate gives the additive inverse

x + negate x

=

fromInteger 0

Associativity of (*)

(x * y) * z

=

x * (y * z)

fromInteger 1 is the multiplicative identity

x * fromInteger 1

=

x

and

fromInteger 1 * x

=

x

Distributivity of (*) with respect to (+)

a * (b + c)

=

(a * b) + (a * c)

and

(b + c) * a

=

(b * a) + (c * a)

Coherence with toInteger

if the type also implements

GHC.Real.Integral

, then

fromInteger

is a left inverse for

toInteger

, i.e.

fromInteger (toInteger i) == i

Note that it isn't customarily expected that a type instance of both Num and Ord implement an ordered ring. Indeed, in base only Integer and Rational do.

The Binary class provides put and get, methods to encode and decode a Haskell value to a lazy ByteString. It mirrors the Read and Show classes for textual representation of Haskell types, and is suitable for serialising Haskell values to disk, over the network.

For decoding and generating simple external binary formats (e.g. C structures), Binary may be used, but in general is not suitable for complex protocols. Instead use the Put and Get primitives directly.

Instances of Binary should satisfy the following property:

decode . encode == id

That is, the get and put methods should be the inverse of each other. A range of instances are provided for basic Haskell types.

Representable types of kind *. This class is derivable in GHC with the DeriveGeneric flag on.

A Generic instance must satisfy the following laws:

from . to ≡ Prelude.id
to . from ≡ Prelude.id

File and directory names are values of type String, whose precise meaning is operating system dependent. Files can be opened, yielding a handle which can then be used to operate on the contents of that file.

Parsing of Strings, producing values.

Derived instances of Read make the following assumptions, which derived instances of Text.Show.Show obey:

• If the constructor is defined to be an infix operator, then the derived Read instance will parse only infix applications of the constructor (not the prefix form).

• Associativity is not used to reduce the occurrence of parentheses, although precedence may be.

• If the constructor is defined using record syntax, the derived Read will parse only the record-syntax form, and furthermore, the fields must be given in the same order as the original declaration.

• The derived Read instance allows arbitrary Haskell whitespace between tokens of the input string. Extra parentheses are also allowed.

For example, given the declarations

infixr 5 :^:
data Tree a =  Leaf a  |  Tree a :^: Tree a

the derived instance of Read in Haskell 2010 is equivalent to

instance (Read a) => Read (Tree a) where

        readsPrec d r =  readParen (d > app_prec)
                         (\r -> [(Leaf m,t) |
                                 ("Leaf",s) <- lex r,
                                 (m,t) <- readsPrec (app_prec+1) s]) r

                      ++ readParen (d > up_prec)
                         (\r -> [(u:^:v,w) |
                                 (u,s) <- readsPrec (up_prec+1) r,
                                 (":^:",t) <- lex s,
                                 (v,w) <- readsPrec (up_prec+1) t]) r

          where app_prec = 10
                up_prec = 5

Note that right-associativity of :^: is unused.

The derived instance in GHC is equivalent to

instance (Read a) => Read (Tree a) where

        readPrec = parens $ (prec app_prec $ do
                                 Ident "Leaf" <- lexP
                                 m <- step readPrec
                                 return (Leaf m))

                     +++ (prec up_prec $ do
                                 u <- step readPrec
                                 Symbol ":^:" <- lexP
                                 v <- step readPrec
                                 return (u :^: v))

          where app_prec = 10
                up_prec = 5

        readListPrec = readListPrecDefault

Why do both readsPrec and readPrec exist, and why does GHC opt to implement readPrec in derived Read instances instead of readsPrec? The reason is that readsPrec is based on the ReadS type, and although ReadS is mentioned in the Haskell 2010 Report, it is not a very efficient parser data structure.

readPrec, on the other hand, is based on a much more efficient ReadPrec datatype (a.k.a "new-style parsers"), but its definition relies on the use of the RankNTypes language extension. Therefore, readPrec (and its cousin, readListPrec) are marked as GHC-only. Nevertheless, it is recommended to use readPrec instead of readsPrec whenever possible for the efficiency improvements it brings.

As mentioned above, derived Read instances in GHC will implement readPrec instead of readsPrec. The default implementations of readsPrec (and its cousin, readList) will simply use readPrec under the hood. If you are writing a Read instance by hand, it is recommended to write it like so:

instance Read T where
  readPrec     = ...
  readListPrec = readListPrecDefault