README.md

Yin Yang puzzle

(let ((yin
    ((lambda (cc) (display #\@) cc) (call-with-current-continuation (lambda (c) c))))
  (yang
    ((lambda (cc) (display #\*) cc) (call-with-current-continuation (lambda (c) c)))))
(yin yang))

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call-with-current-continuation for more details.

Syntactic translation to JS (with unusable call_cc function)

function yinyang() {
    const yin = ((cc) => {
        process.stdout.write("@");
        return cc;
    })(call_cc(k => k));
    const yang = ((cc) => {
        process.stdout.write("*");
        return cc;
    })(call_cc(k => k));
    yin(yang);
}

semantic of call_cc

call_cc captures the "current" continuation of the call_cc call itself. Example:

function call_cc_demo() {
    const x = call_cc(k => {
        k(100);
        return 200;
    });
    console.log(x);
}

call_cc takes a user-provided function f, which takes the continuation k as parameter. So a psuedo implementation of call_cc is like this:

function call_cc(f) {
    let k = get_cont(); // this is the continuation, i.e. how the caller of `call_cc` will do with the return value of `call_cc`
    return f(k);
}

In the above call_cc_demo example, the k is the continuation of call_cc, which is equal to:

(x) => {
    console.log(x);
}

call_cc will execute the function f provided, so

(k) => {
    f(100);
    return 200;
}

will be executed, and the console will output 100.

Then the return value of f will be the return value of call_cc, so x is equal to 200, and then it will execute console.log(x), which outputs 200.

So the output of the function will be:

100
200

Inferring the type of call_cc

Assume that call_cc is a function returning type r:

call_cc: (???) -> r

It takes a function f, and the return value of f is the return value of call_cc, so they have the same return type r:

f: (???) -> r
call_cc: (??? -> r) -> r

f takes k, which is the continuation of call_cc, i.e. it takes an r and returns something unrelated:

k: r -> a
f: (r -> a) -> r
call_cc: ((r -> a) -> r) -> r

Note that call_cc is ill typed, since (like in the yin-yang puzzle) we can return k in f, making r be (r -> a), which is recursively typed.

Continuation-Passing Style (CPS)

Every program can be rewritten in CPS, i.e. callback style:

function f(x) {
    return x + 123;
}

function g() {
    const y = f(10);
    console.log(y);
}

g(); // output: 133

// ^^^ Normal version ^^^
//
// ------------------------------------------------------------
//
// vvv CPS version vvv

function console_log_cps(v, k) {
    console.log(v);
    k();
}

function f_cps(x, k) {
    k(x + 123);
}

function g_cps(k) {
    f_cps(10, (y) => {
        console_log_cps(y, k);
    })
}

g_cps(_ => _); // output: 133

With CPS-style, we can write call_cc trivially.

Code organization

cps_${output_index}(_{iteration})?.js means that This file contains the function which explains the first ${output_index} outputs, then (if any) further ${iteration} expanded in order to find the next output.

For example, in cps_01.js, there will be 1 process.stdout.write already expanded the top level.