On Thu, 17 Jul 2003, Geoff Howard wrote:
> Stephan Michels wrote:
>
> >> - rename "WebContinuation" to "FlowState", and accordingly
> >> "WebContinuationManager" to "FlowStateManager".
> >
> > Yes, the Continuation represents a state, but to make a clear
> > difference as a new concept, I think 'Continuation' is accurate.
> > But 'Web..'?!
> >
> > - rename "WebContinuation" to "Continuation", and accordingly
> > "WebContinuationManager" to "ContinuationManager".
>
> I guess I'm a little confused at the general agreement on this naming
> using "continuation". I thought I was hearing in Sylvain's original RT
> that continuations may not be the only implementation. I don't have a
> problem with any of the new names suggested which is why I'm not really
> adding anything to the discussion at this point, but I don't want to
> have the discussion miss this point.
>
> Could someone who resonates with the vision for these other potential
> (non javascript-with-continuations) implementations of flow comment on
> this quickly? If it satisfies you, I have no personal objection.
A little example:
function myFunc()
{
x = "bla";
sendPageAndWait("first")
if (answer = sucess)
y = "blub";
sendPageAndWait("choice")
else
y = "yagh";
sendPageAndWait("choice")
sendPageAndWait("last")
}
Here you have four different states:
state 0:
x = "bla";
sendPage("first")
state 1:
y = "blub";
sendPage("choice")
state 2:
y = "yagh";
sendPage("choice")
state 3:
sendPage("last")
And several transitions:
state 0 -> state 1 if answer = sucess
state 0 -> state 2 otherwise
state 1 -> state 3
state 2 -> state 3
So, here we have a DFA.
The 'continuation' means to freeze the current state of the execution.
The benefit of the continuations are that you have a history
of the states, which you had traversed. And like a backtracking
algorithm, you can go back to a previous state and follow another
route.
So, the answer is, it is sufficient to have the 'history of states'
to take a new name like 'continuation' instead of simple 'state'?
I think yes.
Stephan.
