Abstract
First-class continuations have proven convenient for expressing a variety of control structures. In existing programming languages and formal systems, continuations are usually reified as first-class functions. This means that simple calling is the only operation applicable to continuations. To investigate the benefits of other operations on first-class continuations, we propose a variation of the object calculus in which we can formalize continuations that allow contents to be accessed and/or modified. The object calculus is a series of formal systems proposed by Abadi and Cardelli that formulates object-oriented computation. The sigma-calculus is the simplest variation of such calculi. Nishizaki et al. extended the sigma-calculus by adding first-class continuations that are formalized as Plotkin and Felleisen-style evaluation contexts. In our calculus, which is a successor of this extended sigma-calculus, continuations are represented as mutable objects. Thus, the contents of continuations can be accessed/modified using normal operations on objects. This paper presents the syntax and operational semantics of the calculus, and provides examples describing the usage of the modifiable continuations.
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Kuma, E., Nishizaki, Sy., Watanabe, T. (2012). Modifiable Continuation in Object Calculus. In: Nishizaki, Sy., Numao, M., Caro, J., Suarez, M.T. (eds) Theory and Practice of Computation. Proceedings in Information and Communications Technology, vol 5. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-54106-6_13
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-54106-6_13
Publisher Name: Springer, Tokyo
Print ISBN: 978-4-431-54105-9
Online ISBN: 978-4-431-54106-6
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