[Haskell-cafe] benchmarking a function that returns an unlifted type

[Richard Eisenberg]

Apologies for a newbie question, but I am seeking advice on how to benchmark a pure function that returns an unlifted type. I've heard tell that `criterion` is good for benchmarking, and so I'm using that library (but have no particular allegiance to it, if something else is better).

Specifically, I'm comparing a function over unlifted types with the same function written over lifted types, trying to observe how much we pay for the boxing/unboxing. To benchmark the lifted version, I just use criterion's whnf function. That seems to be working splendidly. Of course, whnf doesn't work over unlifted types, so I found its source code and inlined it. This compiles. But it doesn't work! No matter what I do, the unlifted version measures in the nanoseconds. I'm guessing that GHC "cleverly" is avoiding recomputation. How can I stop this?

Here is my code:

> main :: IO ()
> main = do
>   initializeTime
>   let lifted   = whnf fastSumPrimes 100000
> 
>       unlifted = Benchmarkable go
>         where
>           go n
>             | n <= 0    = return ()
>             | otherwise = let x = fastSumPrimes# 100000# in go (n-1)
> 
>   benchmark lifted
>   benchmark unlifted

I've tried increasing the argument in the unlifted case, to no avail. I've also tried using `case` instead of `let`. -ddump-simpl suggests that fastSumPrimes# is really being called, but I'm dubious.

Can anyone offer advice?

Thanks!
Richard