Why is there "data" and "newtype" in Haskell?

Posted by martingw on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by martingw
Published on 2010-04-15T22:03:11Z Indexed on 2010/04/15 23:13 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 155

Filed under:

haskell

|

language-design

To me it seems that a newtype definition is just a data definition that obeys some restrictions (only one constructor and such), and that due to these restrictions the runtime system can handle newtypes more efficiently. Ok, and the handling of pattern matching for undefined values is slightly different. But suppose Haskell would only knew data definitions, no newtypes: Couldn't the compiler find out for himself whether a given data definition obeys these restrictions, and automatically treat it more efficiently? I'm sure I'm missing out on something, these Haskell designers are so clever, there must be some deeper reason for this...

© Stack Overflow or respective owner

Related posts about haskell

Learning Haskell: How to remove an item from a List in Haskell

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Trying to learn Haskell. I am trying to write a simple function to remove a number from a list without using built-in function (delete...I think). For the sake of simplicity, let's assume that the input parameter is an Integer and the list is an Integer list. Here is the code I have, Please tell me… >>> More
Using Data.Heap in Haskell, or reading Haskell docs for a beginner

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I'm trying to use Haskells Data.Heap module, but I'm incapable of even using it with integers. The only heap I've been capable of using is "empty", which does not take any arguments. Later on I'll figure out how to instance for my needs, but for now I'd be glad if I was even able to test it with… >>> More
What kind of things are easy in Haskell and hard in Scala, and vice versa?

as seen on Programmers - Search for 'Programmers'
There has been some intermingling of Scala and Haskell communities, and I have noticed now and then people commenting on stuff that's supposed to be easy in Haskell and hard and Scala. Less often (maybe because I read Scala questions, not Haskell ones), I see someone mentioning that something in Scala… >>> More
Haskell's cabal dependency problem with happy

as seen on Programmers - Search for 'Programmers'
I have problems installing ghc-mod on my linux machine. cabal worries about "happy" not being available in versione = 1.17: $ cabal install ghc-mod Resolving dependencies... [1 of 1] Compiling Main ( /tmp/haskell-src-exts-1.14.0-1357/haskell-src-exts-1.14.0/Setup.hs, /tmp/haskell-src-exts-1… >>> More
Understanding Haskell's fibonacci

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
fibs :: [Int] fibs = 0 : 1 : [ a + b | (a, b) <- zip fibs (tail fibs)] This generates the Fibonacci sequence. I understand the behaviour of the guards, of :, zip and tail, but I don't understand <-. What is it doing here? >>> More

Related posts about language-design

From a language design perspective, if Javascript objects are simply associative arrays, then why ha

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I was reading about objects in O'Reilly Javascript Pocket Reference and the book made the following statement. An object is a compound data type that contains any number of properties. Javascript objects are associative arrays: they associate arbitrary data values with arbitrary names. From… >>> More
Language Design: Combining Gotos and Functions

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I'm designing and currently rethinking a low-level interpreted programming language with similarities to assembler. I very soon came across the functions/loops/gotos decision problem and thought that while loops like while and for would be too high-level and unfitting, gotos would be too low level… >>> More
Missing ideas in programming language design

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I wanted to try something new and so I designed some programming languages and wrote interpreters for them: A rather low-level, not very expressive language. (I didn't want to parse complex expressions right at the beginning) It featured: Variables (yay) Subroutines, with a call stack Basic… >>> More
New book in the style of Advanced Programming Language Design by R. A. Finkel [closed]

as seen on Programmers - Search for 'Programmers'
I am currently researching visual programming language design for a university paper and came across Advanced Programming Language Design by Raphael A. Finkel from 1996. Other, older discussions in the same vein on Stackoverflow have mentioned Language Implementation Patterns by Terence Parr and… >>> More
C# language design pillars

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
In the article (http://www.artima.com/intv/nonvirtualP.html) Anders Hejlsberg mentioned that versioning is one of the pillars of C# language design. Does anybody know what are other pillars? >>> More