Proposal: NF newtype

[Edward Kmett]

A related data type that I've made use of in the past is described here

https://www.fpcomplete.com/user/edwardk/snippets/once

This version has the benefit that it works with data that really does need
a deepSeq, but encapsulates it in such a way that subsequent deepSeq's do
no extra work.

-Edward

On Tue, Feb 10, 2015 at 3:46 AM, Edward Z. Yang <ezyang at mit.edu> wrote:

> I propose the following (abstract) data type, functions, and instance be
> added to deepseq (naming amenable to bikeshedding):
>
>     newtype NF a = NF a -- abstract
>     makeNF :: NFData a => a -> NF a
>     getNF :: NF a -> a
>     instance NFData (NF a) where
>         rnf x = x `seq` ()
>
> NF is an abstract data type representing data which has been evaluated
> to normal form; the guarantee specifically is, if NF is in whnf, then
> it is in nf.  Crucially, when we have 'NF a', we ONLY need to seq it
> in order to assure that it is fully evaluated.
>
> This guarantee is sufficient for a variety of cases where
> normal data is necessary, e.g. when transmitting data over Channels.
> For example, from the monad-par library 'put_' could be used in place
> of 'put' with this type signature.
>
>     put_ :: IVar (NF a) -> (NF a) -> Par ()
>
> Cheers,
> Edward
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