[Haskell-cafe] Re: 2008-10-12 Hackage status with GHC 6.10 release candidate

[wren ng thornton]

Simon Marlow wrote:
> Don Stewart wrote:
> >     * GHC.Prim was moved,
> 
> Nobody should be importing GHC.Prim, use GHC.Exts instead.


This is oft declared, but as things stand I don't think it's a tenable 
position. If someone's bothering to dig as far as GHC.Exts then it's 
very likely they're trying to optimize numeric computations and for that 
there are a number of functions in GHC.Prim which are essential, in 
particular the fast conversion functions for numeric types[1]. If those 
were moved to GHC.Exts then I think many people would be more inclined 
to heed the advice.


[1] Of the many, these four especially: int2Double#, int2Float#, 
double2Float#, float2Double#. Though I'm sure the folks who work with 
Words would like to add to this list.

-- 
Live well,
~wren