`duration` should do better constraining

[BarishNamazov]

Issue raised in: https://github.com/mavoweb/mavo/issues/925#issuecomment-1272369432

Background: Right now, duration(ms: number, terms?: number | string) only support either a given single unit (e.g. duration(3600*1000, "hour")) or maximum number of units to output (those will be applied from maximum possible unit to smallest, e.g. terms=3 could result in a months, b days, c seconds).

Problem: Users need better constraining, e.g. "need minimum unit as hours" or "start with hours and go up to 2 units higher"

Options:

• Provide minUnit and maxUnit (minUnit <= maxUnit will be expected)
• Provide only minUnit, and let terms define maxUnit
• Allow entering all possible units (e.g. duration(T, "days", "hours"))

I personally think given the current API, the second option is the most natural. When maxUnit or multiple units are given, terms become obsolete and design gets more complex.

[LeaVerou]

Let's try to collect some use cases for this and see how the different syntax options compare. I'll try to remember some of mine.

[BarishNamazov]

I will add as I think and remember of more, but now I remember that initial instinct was something like duration(D, "hours", 2) to have hours and minutes (it is like saying show me hours but with 2 precision). So that would be specifying maxUnit and terms.

[LeaVerou]

That seems very confusing. Is it hours and minutes or hours and days? Whereas something like duration(D, from: 'minutes', to: 'hours') seems clearer.

[karger]

not even clear you need from: and to: . It might be nice if duration(D, "days", "minutes") and duration(D, "minutes", "days") both worked the same.

[LeaVerou]

I'd argue it's not clear what duration(D, "days", "minutes") means without documentation.