Re: Generators

On 15 Apr 2004, at 21:06, Bill Burdick wrote:
> I think continuations fit better with the Java semantic model, but 
> implementing fast continuations is not for the faint of heart.  Scheme 
> systems that support fast continuations model them at the lowest level 
> of the VM and Java doesn't do that.

Agreed.

Maybe a 'simple' version of a continuation could be done on a 1 method 
scope. e.g. supporting the 'yield' statement from ruby, python, C# etc.

myGenerator() {
     yield 1
     yield 2
     yield 3
}

or

myGenerator() {
     for (x in 1..3) {
	yield x
     }
}

which we can turn into an iterator...

     for (y in myGenerator) { ... }

so its like a continuation just in 1 method scope in that it maintains 
its local variable state & can be restarted where it left off. Though 
this would be confined to a single method and only the methods which 
use 'yield' rather than a true continuation which needs to preserve & 
restore an entire call stack - and needs to do this in any method 
anywhere just in case you're in the call stack when a continuation is 
used.

James
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