From: Stephan Michels
> 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.
Sorry, I don't think so. I'm not a specialist in Scheme but I think
there is a concept behind continuations and the general use for all
controllers in Cocoon would be misleading.
Reinhard
