[Haskell-cafe] Semantics of temporal data

[M Farkas-Dyck]

On 30/03/2015 at 22:23:17 +0200, martin wrote:
> Hello all,
> 
> I wrote a Temporal datatype
> 
> data Temporal a = Temporal {
>  	td :: a,         -- "temporal default"
>     	tc :: [Change a] -- "temporal changes"
> } deriving (Eq, Show)
> 
> data Change a = Chg {
>    	ct :: Time, -- "change time"
>       	cv :: a     -- "change value"
> } deriving (Eq,Show)
> 
> I got into semantic trouble when trying to write "join" for Temporal (Temporal a).

> It appears to me that the defaults of the inner Temporal lose most of their meaning. The effective default is the change
> value of the last accepted change from the previous (t0) iteration.

> Does this make some sense? Please feel free to comment.

Yes, as the default value is essentially a change at the lower bound of time, 0 or -∞ or whenever it is, so if we join

Temporal x [Change t1 (Temporal y _)]

the change to y in the inner Temporal would happen at earliest possible time, so assuming t1 is later than this y ought to be ignored, I think.