Safe Haskell | None |
---|---|
Language | Haskell2010 |
A constructor argument is forced if it appears as pattern variable in an index of the target.
For instance x
is forced in sing
and n
is forced in zero
and suc
:
data Sing {a}{A : Set a} : A -> Set where sing : (x : A) -> Sing x data Fin : Nat -> Set where zero : (n : Nat) -> Fin (suc n) suc : (n : Nat) (i : Fin n) -> Fin (suc n)
At runtime, forced constructor arguments may be erased as they can be
recovered from dot patterns. For instance,
unsing : {A : Set} (x : A) -> Sing x -> A
unsing .x (sing x) = x
can become
unsing x sing = x
and
proj : (n : Nat) (i : Fin n) -> Nat
proj .(suc n) (zero n) = n
proj .(suc n) (suc n i) = n
becomes
proj (suc n) zero = n
proj (suc n) (suc i) = n
This module implements the analysis of which constructor arguments are forced. The process of moving the binding site of forced arguments is implemented in the unifier (see the Solution step of Agda.TypeChecking.Rules.LHS.Unify.unifyStep).
Forcing is a concept from pattern matching and thus builds on the concept of equality (I) used there (closed terms, extensional) which is different from the equality (II) used in conversion checking and the constraint solver (open terms, intensional).
Up to issue 1441 (Feb 2015), the forcing analysis here relied on the wrong equality (II), considering type constructors as injective. This is unsound for program extraction, but ok if forcing is only used to decide which arguments to skip during conversion checking.
From now on, forcing uses equality (I) and does not search for forced
variables under type constructors. This may lose some savings during
conversion checking. If this turns out to be a problem, the old
forcing could be brought back, using a new modality Skip
to indicate
that this is a relevant argument but still can be skipped during
conversion checking as it is forced by equality (II).