newtypes and optimization

[Scott Dillard]

Hi,

I have a statically-sized-list library that I use for linear algebra stuff.
It's got a vector type something like this:

> data V a b = V a b

so that a 3D vector is

> type Vec3 a = V a (V a (V a ()))

and I have type classes for operations on these things, like so:

> class VZipWith a b c u v w | {-lots of fundeps-} where
>   vzipWith :: (a -> b -> c) -> u -> v -> w
>
> instance VZipWith a b c (V a ()) (V b ()) (V c ()) where
>   vzipWith f (V x ()) (V y ()) = V (f x y) ()
>
> instance
>   VZipWith a b c (V a u) (V b v) (V c w)
>   => VZipWith a b c (V a (V a u)) (V b (V b v)) (V c (V c w))
>     where
>       vzipWith f (V x u) (V y v) = V (f x y) (vzipWith f u v)

so that vector addition is

> vadd = vzipWith (+)

I put strictness annotations and INLINE pragmas all over the place, and GHC
does wonders with it. Using Storable instances something like the following,

> instance Storable a => Storable (V a ()) where
>   sizeOf _ = sizeOf (undefined::a)
>   peek p = peek (castPtr p) >>= \a -> return (V a ())
>   --etc
>
> instance (Storable a, Storable v) => Storable (V a v) where
>   sizeOf _ = sizeOf (undefined::a) + sizeOf (undefined::v)
>   peek p =
>     a <- peek (castPtr p)
>     v <- peek (castPtr (p`plusPtr`sizeOf(undefined::a)))
>     return (V a v)

GHC can turn a loop like this,

> forM_ [0..n] $ \i ->
>   do a <- peekElemOff aptr i
>      b <- peekElemOff bptr i
>      pokeElemOff cptr i (vadd a b)

into something as fast as C, using no heap. You look at the core and its
nothing but readDoubleOffAddr#, +## and the like. I went so far as to generalize
this to matrices with things like vector-matrix and matrix-matrix
multiplication, determinants and all that and, when used in loops like above,
it's consistently as fast or even faster than C.


However when I do this:

> newtype Quaternion = Q (Vec4 Double)

Everything is ruined. Functions like peek and vadd are no longer inlined,
intermediate linked lists are created all over the place. The Quaternion
Storable instance looks like this

> instance Storable s => Storable (Quaternion s) where
>   sizeOf _ = 4*sizeOf (undefined::s)
>   peek p = peek (castPtr p :: Ptr (Vec4 s)) >>= \v -> return (Q v)

with strictness annotations and INLINEs for everything. I also tried automatic
newtype deriving, with no luck. Why does a newtype defeat so much of the
optimization?

Thanks,
Scott