ANN: H98 FFI Addendum 1.0, Release Candidate 10

[Manuel M T Chakravarty]

"Simon Marlow" <simonmar at microsoft.com> wrote,

> > Manuel M T Chakravarty <chak at cse.unsw.edu.au> writes:
> > 
> > > -=- Changes since RC 9
> > > 
> > > * 6.2:   All the types in CTypes must be newtypes that are exported
> > >          abstractly. 
> > 
> > This change makes things highly inconvenient in nhc98.  A newtype
> > can only be passed across the FFI in nhc98 if we have enough
> > information to determine the original type that is being renamed.
> > If Foreign.C.Types exports them abstractly, then currently we do not
> > have that information, and so these types cannot be used at all!
> > 
> > I am not suggesting that the newtype constructors should necessarily
> > be part of the API seen by the user, but the problem comes down to a
> > known deficiency in nhc98's interface file conventions.  
> 
> How about exporting them non-abstractly for nhc98 only, and adding a
> comment to explain why the workaround is necessary?

That's what I prefer, too.

Manuel