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.