• DOI:10.1145/1480881.1480903
• Corpus ID: 10260933

Lazy evaluation and delimited control

@article{Garcia2009LazyEA,
  title={Lazy evaluation and delimited control},
  author={Ronald Garcia and Andrew Lumsdaine and Amr Sabry},
  journal={Log. Methods Comput. Sci.},
  year={2009},
  volume={6}
}

• Ronald Garcia, A. Lumsdaine, A. Sabry
• Published 21 January 2009
• Computer Science
• Log. Methods Comput. Sci.

The call-by-need lambda calculus provides an equational framework for reasoning syntactically about lazy evaluation. This paper examines its operational characteristics.
By a series of reasoning steps, we systematically unpack the standard-order reduction relation of the calculus and discover a novel abstract machine definition which, like the calculus, goes "under lambdas." We prove that machine evaluation is equivalent to standard-order evaluation.
Unlike traditional abstract machines, delimited control plays a significant role in the machine's behavior. In particular, the machine replaces the manipulation of a heap using store-based effects with disciplined management of the evaluation stack using control-based effects. In short, state is replaced with control.
To further articulate this observation, we present a simulation of call-by-need in a call-by-value language using delimited control operations.