Abstract
The use of continuations in the definition of programming languages has gained considerable currency recently, particularly in conjunction with the lattice-theoretic methods of D. Scott. Although continuations are apparently needed to provide a mathematical semantics for non-applicative control features, they are unnecessary for the definition of a purely applicative language, even when call-by-value occurs. This raises the question of the relationship between the direct and the continuation semantic functions for a purely applicative language. We give two theorems which specify this relationship and show that, in a precise sense, direct semantics are included in continuation semantics.
The heart of the problem is the construction of a relation which must be a fixed-point of a non-monotonic “relational functor.” A general method is given for the construction of such relations between recursively defined domains.
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Reynolds, J.C. (1974). On the Relation between Direct and Continuation Semantics. In: Loeckx, J. (eds) Automata, Languages and Programming. ICALP 1974. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 14. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-21545-6_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-21545-6_10
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
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