Proposal: Max and Min for Monoid

[Jake McArthur]

This proposal [1] was originally submitted to Trac by Conal Elliott, but 
it was apparently abandoned and closed after some time. I've picked it 
back up and written out a patch. Here is the text of the proposal 
(including a correction mentioned in the first comment on the ticket):

> I'd like to add two instances to Data.Monoid, alongside of All/Any, Sum/Product, and First/Last.
>
> Here's a current instance (as a style example):
>
>     -- | Boolean monoid under conjunction.
>     newtype All = All { getAll :: Bool }
> 	    deriving (Eq, Ord, Read, Show, Bounded)
>
>     instance Monoid All where
> 	    mempty = All True
> 	    All x `mappend` All y = All (x && y)
>
> My proposed addition:
>
>     -- | Ordered monoid under 'max'.
>     newtype Max a = Max { getMax :: a }
> 	    deriving (Eq, Ord, Read, Show, Bounded)
>
>     instance (Ord a, Bounded a) => Monoid (Max a) where
> 	    mempty = Max minBound
> 	    Max a `mappend` Max b = Max (a `max` b)
>
>     -- | Ordered monoid under 'min'.
>     newtype Min a = Min { getMin :: a }
> 	    deriving (Eq, Ord, Read, Show, Bounded)
>
>     instance (Ord a, Bounded a) => Monoid (Min a) where
> 	    mempty = Min maxBound
> 	    Min a `mappend` Min b = Min (a `min` b)
>
> I have a niggling uncertainty about the Ord & Bounded instances for Min a? Is there a reason flip the a ordering instead of preserving it?

- Jake

[1] http://hackage.haskell.org/trac/ghc/ticket/1951