Haskell platform proposal: time-extras package

[Malcolm Wallace]

>
>> Correct me if I am wrong, but the "time" package already uses  
>> extensions beyond Haskell'98.  It certainly imports the ReadP  
>> library, which requires Rank2,

> I was originally going to put the Data instances in "time", but you  
> objected:
>
> http://www.haskell.org/pipermail/libraries/2009-June/011791.html
> http://www.haskell.org/pipermail/libraries/2009-June/011796.html
>
> What do you recommend?

At the time of that objection, I did not realise that "time" already  
required Rank2.  My preference would be for "time"s dependency on  
ReadP to be removed in favour of a H'98 parsing combinator library,  
thus bringing "time" back to true portability.

(Back in the autumn, I did spend some time attempting to re-code  
"time"s parsing code precisely to remove the ReadP dep, but never  
completed it.)

However, you might consider that a step too far, in which case adding  
the Rank2-requiring Data instances into "time" might be the better  
solution for you.

Regards,
     Malcolm