I worked through Oleg's tutorial of delimited continuations:
newtype Cont r a = Cont{runCont :: (a -> r) -> r}
instance Monad (Cont r) where
return x = Cont (\k -> k x)
Cont m >>= f = Cont (\k -> m (\v -> runCont (f v) k))
runC :: Cont r r -> r
runC m = runCont m id
reset :: Cont a a -> Cont r a
reset = return . runC
shift :: ((a -> r) -> Cont r r) -> Cont r a
shift f = Cont (runC . f)
liftM2 (-)
(reset
(liftM2 (+) (return 3)
(shift (\k -> return (5*2))))) -- drop the continuation
(return 1) -- 9
Since continuations are basically functions and reset
/shift
are not even part of the monad api, I wonder how to implement delimited continuations without the newtype
and monad machinery.
Here is what I've come up with so far:
reset :: Cont a a -> Cont r a -- becomes
reset :: ((a -> a) -> a) -> (a -> r) -> r
reset k f = f $ k id
shift :: ((a -> r) -> Cont r r) -> Cont r a -- becomes
shift :: ((a -> r) -> (r -> r) -> r) -> (a -> r) -> r
shift f k = f k id
I am pretty sure this is plain wrong and if it's not I don't know how to apply the operators correctly:
(1-) (reset ((3+) (shift (\k -> 5*2)))) -- yields
• Non type-variable argument in the constraint: Num ((a -> a) -> a)
(Use FlexibleContexts to permit this)
• When checking the inferred type
t1 :: forall a r.
(Num ((a -> a) -> a), Num ((a -> r) -> r)) =>
(a -> r) -> r
Keep going!
import Prelude hiding (return)
-- reset :: Cont a a -> Cont r a
reset :: ((a -> a) -> a) -> (a -> r) -> r
reset k f = f $ k id
-- shift :: ((a -> r) -> Cont r r) -> Cont r a
shift :: ((a -> r) -> (r -> r) -> r) -> (a -> r) -> r
shift f k = f k id
-- return :: a -> Cont r a
return :: a -> (a -> r) -> r
return a k = k a
-- liftM2 :: (a -> b -> c) -> Cont r a -> Cont r b -> Cont r c
liftM2 :: (a -> b -> c) -> ((a -> r) -> r) -> ((b -> r) -> r) -> (c -> r) -> r
liftM2 f ma mb k = ma $ \a -> mb $ \b -> k (f a b)
example :: Num a => (a -> r) -> r
example = liftM2 (-) (reset (liftM2 (+) (return 3) (shift (\k -> return (5*2))))) (return 1)
One issue with (1-) (reset ((3+) (shift (\k -> 5*2))))
is that you're replacing Cont
's return
with id
, when it's actually flip id
:
λ :t shift (\k -> 5*2)
shift (\k -> 5*2) :: Num ((r -> r) -> r) => (a -> r) -> r
λ :t shift (\k -> ($ 5*2))
shift (\k -> ($ 5*2)) :: Num r => (a -> r) -> r
Usually, when ghci says "we need to be able to treat functions as numbers for this code to work", that means you've made a mistake somewhere :)