[GHC] #11585: Overload the static form to reduce verbosity

[GHC]

#11585: Overload the static form to reduce verbosity
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        Reporter:                    |                Owner:
  facundo.dominguez                  |  facundo.dominguez
            Type:  feature request   |               Status:  new
        Priority:  normal            |            Milestone:  8.0.1
       Component:  Compiler          |              Version:  7.10.3
      Resolution:                    |             Keywords:
Operating System:  Unknown/Multiple  |         Architecture:
                                     |  Unknown/Multiple
 Type of failure:  None/Unknown      |            Test Case:
      Blocked By:                    |             Blocking:
 Related Tickets:                    |  Differential Rev(s):
       Wiki Page:                    |
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Description changed by facundo.dominguez:

@@ -16,2 +16,2 @@
- This is achieved by introducing the {{{IsStatic}}} type class and changing
- the typing rule for static forms slightly:
+ This could be achieved by introducing the {{{IsStatic}}} type class and
+ changing the typing rule for static forms slightly:

New description:

 Static pointers are rarely used naked: most often they are defined at the
 base of a {{{Closure}}}, as defined in e.g. the {{{distributed-closure}}}
 and {{{distributed-static}}} packages. So a typical usage pattern is:
 {{{
     distributeMap (closure (static (\x -> x * 2)))
 }}}
 which is more verbose than it needs to be. Ideally we'd just have to
 write
 {{{
     distributeMap (static (\x -> x * 2))
 }}}
 and let the static pointer be lifted to a {{{Closure}}} implicitly. i.e.
 what we want is to overload static literals, just like we already overload
 list literals and string literals.

 This could be achieved by introducing the {{{IsStatic}}} type class and
 changing the typing rule for static forms slightly:
 {{{
   static (e :: t) :: IsStatic p => p t
 }}}

--

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Ticket URL: <http://ghc.haskell.org/trac/ghc/ticket/11585#comment:1>
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