Re: So, what the heck is a continuation anyway?

[Dan Sugalski <address@hidden>]

At 03:38 PM 12/10/2001 -0500, Bruce Lewis wrote:
>Dan Sugalski <dan@sidhe.org> writes:
>
> > That's evil. I really like it. :)
>
>Yes, that's the key understanding here.  Shriram may jump in with some
>pretense of continuations' practicality in web applications, where
>hitting the back button and re-submitting a form conceptually harmonizes
>with re-invoking a continuation.  However, the real use of continuations
>is to bend peoples' minds with code like
>   ((call/cc call/cc) (call/cc call/cc))

Up until now, the clearest (though not actually clear) explanation I'd seen 
for continuations came from a website 
(http://www.eleves.ens.fr:8080/home/madore/computers/callcc.html) for a 
language that included them specifically because it was so bizarre. (The 
language looks like INTERCAL for the next generation...)

					Dan

--------------------------------------"it's like this"-------------------
Dan Sugalski                          even samurai
dan@sidhe.org                         have teddy bears and even
                                      teddy bears get drunk