dataToTag# documentation

[Simon Peyton Jones]

Based on memory rather that investigation:

- yes it works on any data type

- The reason that the primop dataToTag# is dangerous is that it does
  not evaluate its argument; it relies on the wrapper getTag to do
  so.    Caveat emptor!  It would be good to document this.

Simon

|  -----Original Message-----
|  From: ghc-devs [mailto:ghc-devs-bounces at haskell.org] On Behalf Of
|  David Feuer
|  Sent: 02 August 2017 03:04
|  To: ghc-devs at haskell.org
|  Subject: dataToTag# documentation
|  
|  dataToTag# is documented as getting the tag number of an enumeration,
|  which is perfectly reasonable because it's designed to support
|  deriving Enum.
|  But it *appears* to work also for non-enumeration datatypes:
|  
|  dataToTag# Nothing = 0#
|  dataToTag# (Just 3) = 1#
|  
|  Does this actually always work? If so, should that be documented, or
|  is there a realistic possibility that its behavior will change in the
|  future?
|  
|  Additionally: the documentation for dataToTag# urges readers to use
|  GHC.Base.getTag instead. But dataToTag# is exported from the "public"
|  GHC.Exts, whereas getTag is not. Should we add getTag to GHC.Exts, or
|  change the documentation for dataToTag#?
|  
|  David
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