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Notes on why first-class control matters
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thesis.tex
30
thesis.tex
@@ -394,11 +394,33 @@ In this dissertation I am concerned only with
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parameterised handlers which are a slight variation of deep handlers.
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\section{Why first-class control matters}
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From the perspective of programmers first-class control is a valuable
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programming feature because it enables them to implement their own
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control idioms as if they were native to the programming
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language. More important with first-class control programmer-defined
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control idioms are local phenomena which can be encapsulated in a
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library such that the rest of the program does not need to be made
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aware of their existence. Conversely, without first-class control some
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control idioms can only be implemented using global program
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restructuring techniques such as continuation passing style.
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\subsection{Flavours of control}
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\paragraph{Undelimited control}
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\paragraph{Delimited control}
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\paragraph{Composable control}
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From the perspective of compiler engineers first-class control is
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valuable because it unifies several control-related constructs under
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one single construct. First-class control can be beneficial for
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implementing programming languages which have no notion of first-class
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control in source language. A runtime with support for first-class
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control can considerably simplify and ease maintainability of an
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implementation of a programming language with various distinct
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second-class control idioms such as async/await, coroutines, etc,
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because compiler engineers need only implement and maintain a single
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control mechanism rather than having to implement and maintain
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individual runtime support for each control idiom in the source
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language.
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% \subsection{Flavours of control}
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% \paragraph{Undelimited control}
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% \paragraph{Delimited control}
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% \paragraph{Composable control}
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\subsection{Why effect handlers matter}
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