Continuations for All: Language Design Considerations for Accessible Continuations

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" summary

Claims a beginner-friendly design makes continuations easier to learn and shows concrete results from a course using Pyret-cont: three constructs (grab and limit, send and run, algebraic effects), a browser stepper that shows captured continuations as lambdas, and measured student reactions across 14 lectures with 55 students (11 with no prior functional experience). Students prefer descriptive keywords and familiar syntax; about half use the stepper at least once and report it helps, while effect handlers score higher for usability and grab/limit for local reasoning.

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" chapters (15)

1. 0:00Accessible continuations intro
2. 1:47Pirate Count language
3. 2:29Three continuations in Pirate Count
4. 5:01Stepper tool for continuations
5. 6:08Teaching continuations
6. 7:13Student feedback on continuations
7. 9:01Design principles for continuations
8. 13:03Student survey on Pirate Count
9. 15:54Future improvements
10. 17:00Conclusion and Pirate Count
11. 17:27Q&A on preferences
12. 18:33Educational research discussion
13. 20:40Feedback on Pirate Count stepper
14. 21:42Notional machines and continuations
15. 22:48Visualizing continuations