Re: CPS in Parrot (was: A plea for a new old language)

[Dan Sugalski <address@hidden>]

At 9:46 AM -0400 8/5/03, Vadim Nasardinov wrote:
>In the interest of bringing some closure to this thread, let me
>juxtapose these two quotes:

Yup. Everyone can feel free to gloat about that a bit. Even better, 
in "Perl 6 Essentials", the book I co-wrote with Allison Randal and 
Leo Toetsch, there's a section describing continuations that closes 
with something like "and they'd be really useful as a control 
mechanism, but we've decided to not do that". I am going to be living 
that one down for an awfully long time. I think I'll manage, given 
the win. :)

Probably the important bit in that final quote is "(I'm convinced at 
this point that all of the fear people have about continuations is a 
direct result of how they're taught and what's associated with them, 
though that's a rant for another
day.)" Which I believe, and am quite willing to stand by.

>On 05/07/2003, Dan Sugalski wrote:
>
>>  I just spent part of last night and a bit of this morning putting
>>  together a layman's explanation of continuation passing style. I
>>  have, at this point, finally realized how useful it is in some
>>  circumstances and the possibilities it gives for runtime
>>  optimization. I like it, and I *really* want to switch Parrot over
>>  to a CPS. (Or is that "CPS style"?) The languages I care about
>>  aren't going to pay any more for the things that continuations
>>  require.
>>
>>  But I can't.
>>
>>  Continuations, bluntly, give people the screaming heebie-jeebies.
>
>On 07/29/2003, Dan Sugalski wrote
>(http://www.sidhe.org/~dan/blog/archives/000226.html):
>
>The uncertainty about their utility has been dealt with. Partly
>because of some of the needs that parrot has, and I'll talk about
>that a bit later, and partly because I've just gotten more
>comfortable with them. I had a fair amount of lingering discomfort
>with them that needed dealing with. The fear about scaring people
>off with them is gone as well--I understand them, I know how to
>explain them to people quickly and reasonably simply, and in a way
>that can deal with the knee-jerk fear often associated with
>them. (I'm convinced at this point that all of the fear people
>have about continuations is a direct result of how they're taught
>and what's associated with them, though that's a rant for another
>day.


-- 
                                         Dan

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