LISP in Small Pieces (was Re: So, what the heck is a continuationanyway?)

[Eric Kidd <address@hidden>]

On Mon, 2001-12-10 at 14:08, Seth Gordon wrote:
> _Lisp In Small Pieces_ has an excellent discussion of continuations,
> and how they interact with other control structures, from an
> implementor's point of view.

Queinnec, Christian.  _LISP in Small Pieces_.  Press Syndicate of the
University of Cambridge: New York, 1996.

LISP in Small Pieces (hereafter LiSP) includes source code for eleven
Scheme interpreters, a bytecode compiler, and a Scheme-to-C compiler. 
The interpreters include simple Scheme intepreters based on a
surrounding LISP runtime, a complete specification of Scheme in
denotational semantics, and a high-performance interpreter.

The book begins by gradually refining the semantics of Scheme, making
the details more explicit.  Once Scheme is fully specified, LiSP begins
to discuss increasingly hairy performance issues.

It's a nice book.

If you're interested in compiling Scheme, it's definitely a worthwhile
investment.  Expect to spend some time plowing through; a few of the
chapters get pretty dense.

Interesting note: The first generation of the Proto->C compiler was
lightly based on the Scheme->C compiler.  It's a nice, simple
architecture.

Cheers,
Eric