[Pl-seminar] Continuations reading group

[Ken Shan]

[Please distribute this announcement!  Apologies for multiple copies.]

You are invited to join the

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                      CONTINUATIONS READING GROUP

                     Fall 2003, Harvard University

             http://www.eecs.harvard.edu/~ccshan/continue/

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Continuations have found many applications in the study of programming
languages and (more recently) natural languages.  In this reading group,
we will read and discuss papers on continuations from many perspectives,
including

 1. control in programming languages, especially delimited continuations;

 2. quantification and other applications in linguistics; and

 3. connections to classical and linear logic, via the Curry-Howard
    correspondence.

We expect an interdisciplinary group of participants that is diverse in
terms of research interests and technical vocabulary.  The exact topics
and papers to be covered will evolve as we explore this diversity.
Just to give an idea of where we might head, below are some candidate
readings (one from each perspective named above).

 1. Dorai Sitaram. 1993.  Handling control.
    In Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Programming Language Design
    and Implementation, 147-155.
    http://www.cs.rice.edu/CS/PLT/Publications/Scheme/pldi93-s.ps.gz

 2. Chris Barker. 2002.  Continuations and the nature of quantification.
    Natural Language Semantics 10(3):211-242.
    http://www.semanticsarchive.net/Archive/902ad5f7/barker.continuations.pdf

 3. Philip Wadler. 2003.  Call-by-value is dual to call-by-name.
    In Proceedings of the ACM International Conference on Functional
    Programming.
    http://www.research.avayalabs.com/user/wadler/papers/dual/dual.pdf

LOGISTICS

This reading group is organized by Chung-chieh Shan.  My email address
is ccshan at post.harvard.edu; my phone number is (617) 495-2081.  Please
email me to let me know who you are, and to be added to a mailing list
for participants.

We will meet EVERY THURSDAY FROM 1 TO 2:30 PM, STARTING ON SEPTEMBER 18.
We will meet in Harvard's Maxwell Dworkin building:

                  33 Oxford Street, Room 323
                  Cambridge, MA 02138

Subway and driving directions, and a campus map, are available online
at http://www.deas.harvard.edu/aboutdeas/ourcampus/deasbuildsandmaps/ .
Parking is available for bicycles and motor vehicles; please email me
for details.

Please come to the first meeting prepared to explain what your
research interests are, why you are curious about continuations, and
any (suspected) connections between the two.  (Because we expect a
diverse group, please give some thought to using simple, non-technical
language.)  If you already have a paper that you would like the group to
read -- great! -- bring it along with your enthusiasm; if not, that is
just fine too.

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