If you exponent time.Duration, that's a user error.
What you're suggesting would be like a compiler error for multiplying two int64s
What you're suggesting would be like a compiler error for multiplying two int64s
1 second * 1 second = 1 second²
1 meter * 1 meter = 1 meter²
1 meter / 1 second = 1 m/s
- a scalar (int64, float, ...)
- a unit (meter, second, inches, ...)
Working with units is a common thing in science.
I would argue it is actually three things: a scalar, a unit, and an indication of error – which is at least another scalar, but there are multiple ways of expressing error, so it might require more than just a single scalar (such as an interval and the probability the actual value lies within that interval.)
> If the type system of your programming language does not allow you to define units, this should at least be a structure with a scalar and an enum
Ideally more than just an enum – Newton = kg*m*s^-2 (equivalently kg^1*m^1*s^-2) – which suggests a set of pairs (unit and exponent).
And it's especially true for time units.
For example, "how many seconds is one month?" does not make sense, but "how many seconds is january/february/march?" does make sense. The unit "month" does not really exist, each calendar month is its own unit.
And "february" is not even a "stable" unit because sometimes it's 28 days, sometimes it's 29 days. Even a minute can some rare times be 61 seconds.
This is why in physics, we use seconds multiplied by powers of 10 and nothing else.
To my knowledge, there is not a single programming language that differentiate a "scalar" and a "quantity" (scalar, unit, error).