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<center><h1>The NHC.PackedString library in nhc98</h1></center>
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This document sketches the PackedString library in nhc98.  It is
closely based on the non-standard PackedString library in hbc.
It provides a more space-efficient representation of 8-bit character
strings than the standard list-of-characters representation.
A PackedString containing n characters occupies at most (n`div`4)+2
words of heap memory, whereas a fully evaluated ordinary string
occupies at least (n*2)+2 words.  The price to pay is that the contents
of a PackedString is always fully evaluated, whereas an ordinary
String may be lazy.  Thus, an unevaluated String can actually take
less space than an evaluated PackedString.
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<h3>The NHC.PackedString library</h3>
<pre>
module NHC.PackedString
    ( PackedString	-- abstract, instance of Eq, Ord, Show, Read
    , packString	-- :: String -> PackedString
    , unpackPS		-- :: PackedString -> String 
    , cons	-- :: Char -> PackedString -> PackedString
    , nil	-- :: PackedString
    , head	-- :: PackedString -> Char
    , tail	-- :: PackedString -> PackedString
    , append	-- :: PackedString -> PackedString -> PackedString
    , break	-- :: (Char->Bool) -> PackedString -> (PackedString, PackedString)
    , concat	-- :: [PackedString] -> PackedString
    , drop	-- :: Int -> PackedString -> PackedString
    , dropWhile	-- :: (Char->Bool) -> PackedString -> PackedString
    , filter	-- :: (Char->Bool) -> PackedString -> PackedString
    , foldl	-- :: (a->Char->a) -> a -> PackedString -> a
    , foldr	-- :: (Char->a->a) -> a -> PackedString -> a
    , index	-- :: PackedString -> Int -> Char
    , length	-- :: PackedString -> Int
    , lines	-- :: PackedString -> [PackedString]
    , map	-- :: (Char->Char) -> PackedString -> PackedString
    , null	-- :: PackedString -> Bool
    , reverse	-- :: PackedString -> PackedString
    , span	-- :: (Char->Bool) -> PackedString -> (PackedString, PackedString)
    , splitAt	-- :: Int -> PackedString -> (PackedString, PackedString)
    , substr	-- :: PackedString -> Int -> Int -> PackedString
    , take	-- :: Int -> PackedString -> PackedString
    , takeWhile	-- :: (Char->Bool) -> PackedString -> PackedString
    , unlines	-- :: [PackedString] -> PackedString
    , unwords	-- :: [PackedString] -> PackedString
    , words	-- PackedString -> [PackedString]
    )
where
import Prelude hiding (append,break,concat,cons,drop,dropWhile,
		filter,foldl,foldr,head,Ix(..),
		length,lines,Functor(..),map,nil,null,
		reverse,span,splitAt,substr,tail,take,
		takeWhile,unlines,unwords,words)
</pre>
<hr>
<p>
The latest updates to these pages are available on the WWW from
<a href="http://www.cs.york.ac.uk/fp/nhc98/">
<tt>http://www.cs.york.ac.uk/fp/nhc98/</tt></a>
<p>
2001.11.27<br>
<a href="http://www.cs.york.ac.uk/fp/">
York Functional Programming Group</a><br>
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