Difference Argument Order

[Ashley Yakeley]

In article 
<Pine.LNX.4.44.0505231120560.2708-100000 at peano.math.uni-bremen.de>,
 Henning Thielemann <lemming at henning-thielemann.de> wrote:

> I assume that these function are for computations like
>   subtract :: DegreeCentigrade -> Kelvin -> DegreeCentigrade
>   diff :: DegreeCentigrade -> DegreeCentigrade -> Kelvin
>  and the intentions are different enough to implement distinct functions.
> I assume that there will be an implementation for 'diff' whenever there is
> one for 'subtract' and vice versa, thus considering them as different
> instances of the same class does not seem to be a good design.

They're actually for time:

  diffAbsoluteTime :: AbsoluteTime -> AbsoluteTime -> DiffTime

  diffUTCTime :: UTCTime -> UTCTime -> UTCDiffTime

Ideally I'd make a two-parameter class, e.g. "class Diff diff abs | abs 
-> diff" which would have all three functions, but I'm sticking with 
Haskell 98 (plus FFI only) for portability.

-- 
Ashley Yakeley, Seattle WA