Proposed change to ForeignPtr

[Alastair Reid]

> I assume you meant
>   makeForeignPtr :: Ptr a -> FunPtr (Ptr a -> IO ()) -> IO (ForeignPtr a)

Oops, yes.

> What do you expect to happen if the finaliser calls a foreign
> exported function?

Good question.

I do not expect that to work on any platform that has difficulty
implementing newForeignPtr (because you could use it to implement
newForeignPtr).

I don't know if it would be likely to work on GHC.

I think the spec should say that it is an error or undefined
depending on whether GHC supports reentrant finalizers or not.

> That's a tricky one.  From the standards point of view, I am
> actually *very* reluctant to introduce new names.  On the other
> hand, reusing the old names will lead to a couple of unhappy emails
> from people using the old interface again.

But only a couple I conjecture.

--
Alastair Reid                 alastair at reid-consulting-uk.ltd.uk  
Reid Consulting (UK) Limited  http://www.reid-consulting-uk.ltd.uk/alastair/