GHC Language Features

The Glasgow Haskell Compiler User's Guide, Version 5.04
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# Chapter 7. GHC Language Features

As with all known Haskell systems, GHC implements some extensions to the language. To use them, you'll need to give a `-fglasgow-exts` option.

Virtually all of the Glasgow extensions serve to give you access to the underlying facilities with which we implement Haskell. Thus, you can get at the Raw Iron, if you are willing to write some non-standard code at a more primitive level. You need not be “stuck” on performance because of the implementation costs of Haskell's “high-level” features—you can always code “under” them. In an extreme case, you can write all your time-critical code in C, and then just glue it together with Haskell!

Before you get too carried away working at the lowest level (e.g., sloshing `MutableByteArray#`s around your program), you may wish to check if there are libraries that provide a “Haskellised veneer” over the features you want. The separate libraries documentation describes all the libraries that come with GHC.

# 7.1. Language options

These flags control what variation of the language are permitted. Leaving out all of them gives you standard Haskell 98.

`-fglasgow-exts`:

  This simultaneously enables all of the extensions to Haskell 98 described in Chapter 7, except where otherwise noted.

`-ffi` and `-fffi`:

  This option enables the language extension defined in the Haskell 98 Foreign Function Interface Addendum plus deprecated syntax of previous versions of the FFI for backwards compatibility.

`-fwith`:

  This option enables the deprecated `with` keyword for implicit parameters; it is merely provided for backwards compatibility. It is independent of the `-fglasgow-exts` flag.

`-fno-monomorphism-restriction`:

  Switch off the Haskell 98 monomorphism restriction. Independent of the `-fglasgow-exts` flag.

`-fallow-overlapping-instances`, `-fallow-undecidable-instances`, `-fallow-incoherent-instances`, `-fcontext-stack`

  See Section 7.3.5.3. Only relevant if you also use `-fglasgow-exts`.

`-finline-phase`

  See Section 7.7. Only relevant if you also use `-fglasgow-exts`.

`-fgenerics`

  See Section 7.8. Independent of `-fglasgow-exts`.

`-fno-implicit-prelude`

  GHC normally imports `Prelude.hi` files for you. If you'd rather it didn't, then give it a `-fno-implicit-prelude` option. The idea is that you can then import a Prelude of your own. (But don't call it `Prelude`; the Haskell module namespace is flat, and you must not conflict with any Prelude module.)

  Even though you have not imported the Prelude, most of the built-in syntax still refers to the built-in Haskell Prelude types and values, as specified by the Haskell Report. For example, the type `[Int]` still means `Prelude.[] Int`; tuples continue to refer to the standard Prelude tuples; the translation for list comprehensions continues to use `Prelude.map` etc.

  However, `-fno-implicit-prelude` does change the handling of certain built-in syntax: see Section 7.5.4.

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