Proposal: System.Timeout module for base

[Peter Simons]

Hi David,

 > I'd prefer a function of the type "timeout :: Int -> IO a -> IO a"
 > which just throws the exception when there's an error. I like
 > exception handling.

A timeout event can be signaled using both exceptions and a return
code ('Nothing'), and there are valid arguments that favor either
approach. In my humble opinion, an exception is an _exceptional_
event. It is something you didn't expect to happen. When I read from a
socket, but that socket doesn't work anymore because the peer suddenly
closed the connection, then that is something I want to have reported
as an exception. When I read from a socket, but can't because the
input stream has reached EOF, then that is _not_ an exception, that is
EOF, a state every stream reaches eventually.

In terms of timeout, I prefer the "Maybe a" return type because when I
say "timeout n f", a timeout event is an expected result, not an
unexpected one. Besides, the computation

  timeout n f >>= maybe (fail "timeout") return

is no major effort to write and has the neat advantage that it doesn't
dictate the type of the exception thrown in case of a timeout. I like
the fact that the dynamic exception used internally isn't visible on
the outside.


 > Another question is whether we could have a nicer type for the time
 > argument.

Originally, the module exported "type MicroSeconds = int" to make
things a little more readable, but in the end it felt odd to have
System.Timeout export a MicroSeconds type. The signature we have now
isn't perfect, but at least it's consistent with hWaitForInput and
threadDelay.

If there is a concrete type the code could use, I'm all for using it,
but I'm against delaying the inclusion of timeout for another couple
of years because we don't have a type for microseconds right now.

Best regards,
Peter