Compiling with Continuations

by Andrew W. Appel

This book shows how continuation-passing style is used as an intermediate representation to perform optimizations and program transformations. Continuations can be used to compile most programming languages. The method is illustrated in a compiler for the programming language Standard ML. Prior knowledge of ML, however, is not necessary, as the author carefully explains each concept as it arises. This is the first book to show how concepts from the theory of programming languages can be applied to the production of practical optimizing compilers for modern languages like ML. All the details of compiling are covered, including the interface to a runtime system and garbage collector.

Genres: Computer Science, Programming, Programming Languages, Computers

272 pages, Hardcover

First published November 29, 1991

About the author

Andrew W. Appel, Ph.D. (Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University, 1985; A.B., Princeton University, 1981) is the Eugene Higgins Professor of Computer Science at Princeton University, where he has been on the faculty since 1986. He served as department chair from 2009 to 2015. His research is in software verification, computer security, programming languages and compilers, and technology policy.

He has been editor-in-chief of ACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems and is a fellow of the ACM (Association for Computing Machinery). He has worked on fast N-body algorithms (1980s), Standard ML of New Jersey (1990s), Foundational Proof-Carrying Code (2000s), and the Verified Software Toolchain (2010s). He is the author of several scientific papers on voting machines and election technology, served as an expert witness on two voting-related court cases in New Jersey, and has taught a course at Princeton on election machinery.