In computer science and programming, a continuation is an abstract representation of the control state of a computer program. A continuation reifies the program control state, i.e. the continuation is a data structure that represents the computational process at a given point in the process' execution; the created data structure can be accessed by the programming language, instead of being hidden in the runtime environment. Continuations are useful for encoding other control mechanisms in programming languages such as exceptions, generators, coroutines, and so on.
The "current continuation" or "continuation of the computation step" is the continuation that, from the perspective of running code, would be derived from the current point in a program's execution. The term continuations can also be used to refer to first-class continuations, which are constructs that give a programming language the ability to save the execution state at any point and return to that point at a later point in the program.
Read more about Continuation: History, First-class Continuations, In Web Development, Kinds, Disadvantages, Linguistics
Famous quotes containing the word continuation:
“After an argument, silence may mean acceptance—or the continuation of resistance by other means.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“Institutional psychiatry is a continuation of the Inquisition. All that has really changed is the vocabulary and the social style. The vocabulary conforms to the intellectual expectations of our age: it is a pseudo-medical jargon that parodies the concepts of science. The social style conforms to the political expectations of our age: it is a pseudo-liberal social movement that parodies the ideals of freedom and rationality.”
—Thomas Szasz (b. 1920)
“I believe it was a good job,
Despite this possible horror: that they might prefer the
Preservation of their law in all its sick dignity and their knives
To the continuation of their creed
And their lives.”
—Gwendolyn Brooks (b. 1917)