What is the story behind the type of undefined?

David Feuer david.feuer at gmail.com
Sun Feb 1 18:54:56 UTC 2015


If I define

{-# LANGUAGE MagicHash #-}

g :: Int# -> Int
g 3# = 3

myUndefined = undefined

then this gives a sensible type error about a kind mismatch:

usual :: Int
usual = g myUndefined

but this, oddly enough, compiles:

peculiar :: Int
peculiar = g undefined

GHCi and the definition in GHC.Error agree that

undefined :: a

So why am I allowed to use it as a type of kind #?


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