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

[Shriram Krishnamurthi <address@hidden>]

Matt Hellige wrote:

> In your vocabulary, he's trying to explain to programmers how
> cps-continuations (2) work, and he's arguing that the worst one can do
> is teach them with an explanation of "how to use" callcc continuations
> (1).

This is exactly right.  CPS-continuations (2) are generally easier to
understand than call/cc-continuations (1), so taking the (1) -> (2)
route to education is about the worst thing you can imagine.

> So, apparently, in terms of teaching, CPS and "how to use callcc
> continuations" are orthogonal, just as they are in terms of
> implementation.

They are not strictly orthogonal in a technical sense (as they are in
the world of implementation), just not particularly good ways of
providing an explanation that leads to understanding.

> In your teaching experience, would you agree that an understanding of
> callcc and first-class continuations is NOT requisite for an
> understanding of language implementation using CPS?

YES.

Shriram