#ifdef considered harmful (was: DData)

[JP Bernardy]

--- Daan Leijen <daanleijen at xs4all.nl> wrote:
> I agree with you that in general we should avoid a
> preprocessor.
> However, in the DData case it is hard to see a
> different solution.
> Using a "mini module" to do the bit-fiddling won't
> work that well since
> 
> 1) It is imperative for performance that the ghc
> "shiftRL#" gets inlined,
>    which doesn't happen if it is in a separate
> module.

Is this true? I thought GHC exports some intermediate
code in .hi files.

> 2) As part of the standard libraries, you can't have
> three extra modules for
>    each system
>

Yet, in this case, maybe the various haskell
implementations could be unfied in a manner that
#ifdefs become unnecessary.

Also, I think that support for older implementations
(ie. GHC < 503) can be dropped, but I need an
"official" opinion here.

Cheers,
JP.





	
		
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