Re: callcc/cps-style programming

[forsyth@caldo.demon.co.uk]

Ousterhout's paper on the dangers of threading was remarkable
for failing even to mention years of research by Hoare and Milner
(amongst others) into much better ways of programming concurrent
applications than either 1960s style wait/notify style or 1970s monitors.
occam, Erlang and others applied the new techniques quite successfully.
Of course, the whole point of developing the techniques was to
address the problems listed in Ousterhout's paper!

>>Period.  But user-level threads, implemented in the language, don't
>>give you much value.  Much better to do some sort of explicit (perhaps
>>semi-automated) CPS-conversion, and use an event-dispatcher.

One reason for using them (and concurrent programming) is
simpler and clearer programs than the rats' nest that often
results from call backs and other attempts to emulate proper processes.