Abstract
I propose a novel language feature, intensional continuation equality, useful in languages with or without first-class continuations, and show how it enables truly remarkable gains in efficiency of ordinary user programs. Continuations, expressing "what the program will do from now on," are a much-used tool of semantics, and sometimes show up as a user-accessible programming feature. But most use of continuations is parametric, in the sense that functions behave the same way independent of their continuation. I will show that nonparametric use of continuations allows very substantial almost incredible gains in program speed. Furthermore, this technique is compatible with almost any style of programming language; imperative, functional, even object-oriented.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 55-57 |
Number of pages | 3 |
Journal | SIGPLAN Notices (ACM Special Interest Group on Programming Languages) |
Volume | 31 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Feb 1996 |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Software
- Computer Graphics and Computer-Aided Design