Questions about sharing

Simon Marlow simonmar@microsoft.com
Fri, 7 Dec 2001 15:09:54 -0000


> I sometimes wonder just how far I should go in obfuscating code by
> manually implementing trivial optimisations that should (IMHO) be
> implemented by the compiler, but may not be.
>=20
> So I have a couple of specific questions..
>=20
> The first is..
> Does the compiler keep a unique copy of expressions which=20
> consist of just
> a single zero arity constructor (eg. [],True,Nothing..) as a=20
> CAF which is
> referenced each time the constructor appears in an=20
> expression, or does it
> duplicate the constructor (expression) each time it's used.
> Maybe I should define my own CAF at the top level and use it instead?
> (or perhaps they're unboxed somehow?)

Nullary constructors are represented by a single static constructor,
they are never built dynamically.  So feel free to write [] wherever you
like - it has the same cost as a variable.

> The second is..
> If, following pattern matching, the matched pattern appears in an
> expression, is it shared or duplicated..
> e.g. (a:as) -> f (a:as)
> Maybe I should write something like this..
>      x@(a:as) -> f x
> (I know that sometimes the type checker won't allow you to do this)

Yes, GHC will common these up (with -O).  I'm not sure I understand the
point about the type checker not letting you do this yourself, though:
surely x and (a:as) have the same type?

Cheers,
	Simon