https://wiki.haskell.org/index.php?title=Cont_computations_as_question-answering_boxes&feed=atom&action=history
Cont computations as question-answering boxes - Revision history
2024-03-28T14:09:50Z
Revision history for this page on the wiki
MediaWiki 1.35.5
https://wiki.haskell.org/index.php?title=Cont_computations_as_question-answering_boxes&diff=64477&oldid=prev
Atravers: Various minor changes; category added.
2021-06-25T23:34:56Z
<p>Various minor changes; category added.</p>
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<td colspan="2" style="background-color: #fff; color: #202122; text-align: center;">Revision as of 23:34, 25 June 2021</td>
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<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>The basic idea behind the Cont <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">monad</del> is that in place of values of type t, you work with functions of type<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline"> </del>(t -> r) -> r, where r is some "response" type. Breaking this down a bit, you can think of a function of type t -> r as a question about a value of type t which has a response of type r -- for a yes<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline"> </del>or<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline"> </del>no question, r might be Bool, for instance. Then a function of type (t -> r) -> r, is like a box which takes a question about a value of type t, and produces an answer from that question.</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>The basic idea behind the <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">monadic <code></ins>Cont<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"></code></ins> <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">type</ins> is that in place of values of type <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"><code></ins>t<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"></code></ins>, you work with functions of type<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"><br><code></ins>(t -> r) -> r<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"></code></ins>, where <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"><code></ins>r<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"></code></ins> is some "response" type. Breaking this down a bit, you can think of a function of type <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"><code></ins>t -> r<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"></code></ins> as a question about a value of type <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"><code></ins>t<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"></code></ins> which has a response of type <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"><code></ins>r<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"></code></ins> -- for a <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">''</ins>yes<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">''-</ins>or<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">-''</ins>no<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">''</ins> question, <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"><code></ins>r<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"></code></ins> might be <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"><code></ins>Bool<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"></code></ins>, for instance. Then a function of type <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"><code></ins>(t -> r) -> r<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"></code></ins>, is like a box which takes a question about a value of type <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"><code></ins>t<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"></code></ins>, and produces an answer from that question.</div></td>
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<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
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<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>In Haskell syntax, we define a new datatype to wrap up this idea:</div></td>
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<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>In Haskell syntax, we define a new datatype to wrap up this idea:</div></td>
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<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div></haskell></div></td>
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<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
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<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Which, given a Cont computation and a question, basically asks the question to get a response.</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Which, given a <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"><code></ins>Cont<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"></code></ins> computation and a question, basically asks the question to get a response.</div></td>
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<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
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<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>The simplest way to make such a box is for the box to just hang on to a value of type t, and answer questions about it truthfully, by simply applying them to the value. (The fun will happen later, when we come up with more twisted ways to get answers.)</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>The simplest way to make such a box is for the box to just hang on to a value of type <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"><code></ins>t<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"></code></ins>, and answer questions about it truthfully, by simply applying them to the value. (The fun will happen later, when we come up with more twisted ways to get answers.)</div></td>
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<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
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<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
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<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>This is embodied in the continuation monad by the function: </div></td>
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<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>This is embodied in the continuation monad by the function: </div></td>
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<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div></haskell></div></td>
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<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
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<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>(The notation <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">(</del>\x -> ...<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">)</del> is a [[Lambda abstraction]].)</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>(The notation <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"><code></ins>\x -> ...<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"></code></ins> is a [[<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">lambda abstraction|</ins>Lambda abstraction]].)</div></td>
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<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
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<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Now, given a computation of type <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">(</del>Cont r t<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">)</del>, and a ''continuation'' which is a function taking a value of type t to some computation of type <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">(</del>Cont r s<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">)</del>, we'd like to have a way to join them together, producing a computation of type <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">(</del>Cont r s<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">)</del>. That's a bit brain<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline"> </del>twisting, so let's think about how we might do it...</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Now, given a computation of type <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"><code></ins>Cont r t<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"></code></ins>, and a ''continuation'' which is a function taking a value of type <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"><code></ins>t<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"></code></ins> to some computation of type <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"><code></ins>Cont r s<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"></code></ins>, we'd like to have a way to join them together, producing a computation of type <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"><code></ins>Cont r s<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"></code></ins>. That's a bit brain<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">-</ins>twisting, so let's think about how we might do it...</div></td>
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<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
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<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
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<td class="diff-marker">−</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>We're constructing a box which is going to receive a question q about a value of type s, and has to answer it somehow.</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>We're constructing a box which is going to receive a question <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"><code></ins>q<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"></code></ins> about a value of type <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"><code></ins>s<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"></code></ins>, and has to answer it somehow.</div></td>
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<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
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<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>We have a box, which we'll call x, which answers questions about a value of type t.</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>We have a box, which we'll call <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"><code></ins>x<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"></code></ins>, which answers questions about a value of type <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"><code></ins>t<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"></code></ins>.</div></td>
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<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
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<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>We also have a function<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">,</del> f<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">,</del> which given a value of type t, will give a box which answers a question about a value of type s.</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>We also have a function <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"><code></ins>f<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"></code></ins> which given a value of type <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"><code></ins>t<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"></code></ins>, will give a box which answers a question about a value of type <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"><code></ins>s<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"></code></ins>.</div></td>
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<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
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<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>So what do we do? We ask x <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">the</del> question <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"</del>if f were applied to your value v of type t<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">,</del> how would the resulting box respond to the question q?<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"</del></div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>So what do we do? We ask <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"><code></ins>x<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"></code></ins> <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">this</ins> question<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">:</ins> <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">''</ins>if <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"><code></ins>f<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"></code></ins> were applied to your value <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"><code></ins>v<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"></code></ins> <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">(</ins>of type <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"><code></ins>t<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"></code>)</ins> how would the resulting box respond to the question <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"><code></ins>q<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"></code></ins>?<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">''</ins></div></td>
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<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
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<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>The operation which does this funny gluing together is called <code>>>=</code> (pronounced bind), and is implemented like this:</div></td>
<td class="diff-marker">+</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>The operation which does this funny gluing together is called <code><ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">(</ins>>>=<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">)</ins></code> (pronounced <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"</ins>bind<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"</ins>), and is implemented like this:</div></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="diff-marker"> </td>
<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
<td class="diff-marker"> </td>
<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="diff-marker"> </td>
<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><haskell></div></td>
<td class="diff-marker"> </td>
<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><haskell></div></td>
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<tr>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno">Line 61:</td>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno">Line 61:</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="diff-marker"> </td>
<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>* <code>(x >>= f) >>= g</code> is the same as <code>x >>= (\v -> f v >>= g)</code></div></td>
<td class="diff-marker"> </td>
<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>* <code>(x >>= f) >>= g</code> is the same as <code>x >>= (\v -> f v >>= g)</code></div></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="diff-marker"> </td>
<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
<td class="diff-marker"> </td>
<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="diff-marker">−</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>You might want to try to verify them as an exercise. These are the three monad laws, which makes <code>Cont r</code> a monad for any given response type r.</div></td>
<td class="diff-marker">+</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>You might want to try to verify them as an exercise. These are the three monad laws, which makes <code>Cont r</code> a monad for any given response type <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"><code></ins>r<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"></code></ins>.</div></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="diff-marker"> </td>
<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
<td class="diff-marker"> </td>
<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="diff-marker"> </td>
<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>== Being sneaky: manipulating questions and responses ==</div></td>
<td class="diff-marker"> </td>
<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>== Being sneaky: manipulating questions and responses ==</div></td>
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<tr>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno">Line 67:</td>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno">Line 67:</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="diff-marker"> </td>
<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>With only these operations, things are rather boring. The first and second rules above basically tell us that anything we can express just in terms of <code>>>=</code> and <code>return</code>, we can also express without.</div></td>
<td class="diff-marker"> </td>
<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>With only these operations, things are rather boring. The first and second rules above basically tell us that anything we can express just in terms of <code>>>=</code> and <code>return</code>, we can also express without.</div></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="diff-marker"> </td>
<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
<td class="diff-marker"> </td>
<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="diff-marker">−</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>However, by working with black boxes that answer questions about values of type t, rather than values of type t directly, the boxes we construct can take steps to manipulate the question or response.</div></td>
<td class="diff-marker">+</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>However, by working with black boxes that answer questions about values of type <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"><code></ins>t<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"></code></ins>, rather than values of type <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"><code></ins>t<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"></code></ins> directly, the boxes we construct can take steps to manipulate the question or response.</div></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="diff-marker"> </td>
<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
<td class="diff-marker"> </td>
<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="diff-marker">−</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Given any function f which turns a question about a value of type s into a question about a value of type t, we can turn a box x which answers questions about a value of type t into a box which answers questions about a value of type s. In code:</div></td>
<td class="diff-marker">+</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Given any function <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"><code></ins>f<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"></code></ins> which turns a question about a value of type <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"><code></ins>s<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"></code></ins> into a question about a value of type <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"><code></ins>t<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"></code></ins>, we can turn a box <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"><code></ins>x<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"></code></ins> which answers questions about a value of type <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"><code></ins>t<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"></code></ins> into a box which answers questions about a value of type <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"><code></ins>s<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"></code></ins>. In code:</div></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="diff-marker"> </td>
<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
<td class="diff-marker"> </td>
<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="diff-marker"> </td>
<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><haskell></div></td>
<td class="diff-marker"> </td>
<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><haskell></div></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno">Line 76:</td>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno">Line 76:</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="diff-marker"> </td>
<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div></haskell></div></td>
<td class="diff-marker"> </td>
<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div></haskell></div></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="diff-marker"> </td>
<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
<td class="diff-marker"> </td>
<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="diff-marker">−</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>That is, simply apply the function to the question first,<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline"> and</del> then ask x how it would answer.</div></td>
<td class="diff-marker">+</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>That is, simply apply the function to the question first, then ask <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"><code></ins>x<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"></code></ins> how it would answer.</div></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="diff-marker"> </td>
<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
<td class="diff-marker"> </td>
<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="diff-marker">−</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Furthermore, given any function <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">(</del>r -> r<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">)</del>, which transforms responses somehow, and any box x, we can easily construct a box which asks the box x how it would respond to a question, and then transforms the response.</div></td>
<td class="diff-marker">+</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Furthermore, given any function <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"><code></ins>r -> r<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"></code></ins>, which transforms responses somehow, and any box <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"><code></ins>x<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"></code></ins>, we can easily construct a box which asks the box <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"><code></ins>x<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"></code></ins> how it would respond to a question, and then transforms the response.<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"> More code:</ins></div></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="diff-marker"> </td>
<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
<td class="diff-marker"> </td>
<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="diff-marker"> </td>
<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><haskell></div></td>
<td class="diff-marker"> </td>
<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><haskell></div></td>
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<tr>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno">Line 85:</td>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno">Line 85:</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="diff-marker"> </td>
<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div></haskell></div></td>
<td class="diff-marker"> </td>
<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div></haskell></div></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="diff-marker"> </td>
<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
<td class="diff-marker"> </td>
<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="diff-marker">−</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>You certainly can't do either of these things with plain values! For example, let's consider the value <code>mapCont not (return 0) :: Cont Bool Integer</code>. It is a box that gives the opposite response to any True/False question that one would get if one asked the same question about the number 0. For example, we might do something like:</div></td>
<td class="diff-marker">+</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>You certainly can't do either of these things with plain values! For example, let's consider the value<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"><br></ins> <code>mapCont not (return 0) :: Cont Bool Integer</code>. It is a box that gives the opposite response to any <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"><code></ins>True<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"><</ins>/<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">code>/<code></ins>False<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"></code></ins> question that one would get if one asked the same question about the number <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"><code></ins>0<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"></code></ins>. For example, we might do something like:</div></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="diff-marker"> </td>
<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
<td class="diff-marker"> </td>
<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="diff-marker"> </td>
<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><haskell></div></td>
<td class="diff-marker"> </td>
<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><haskell></div></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno">Line 92:</td>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno">Line 92:</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="diff-marker"> </td>
<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div></haskell></div></td>
<td class="diff-marker"> </td>
<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div></haskell></div></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="diff-marker"> </td>
<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
<td class="diff-marker"> </td>
<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="diff-marker">−</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>The value <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">'</del>t<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">'</del> in the above is apparently a number which gives the appearance of simultaneously being both less than and greater than 0! Of course, what's really happening is that the test is turning out False and being negated after.</div></td>
<td class="diff-marker">+</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>The value <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"><code></ins>t<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"></code></ins> in the above<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"> example</ins> is apparently a number which gives the appearance of simultaneously being both less than and greater than <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"><code></ins>0<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"></code></ins>! Of course, what's really happening is that the test is turning out <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"><code></ins>False<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"></code></ins> and being negated after.</div></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="diff-marker"> </td>
<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
<td class="diff-marker"> </td>
<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
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<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>== Being sneakier: Making the result depend directly on the question ==</div></td>
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<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>== Being sneakier: Making the result depend directly on the question ==</div></td>
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<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
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<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>There's an interesting insight to be had in thinking about the question that the computation <code>x</code> is given in the application<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline"> </del><code>x >>= f</code>.</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>There's an interesting insight to be had in thinking about the question that the computation <code>x</code> is given in the application<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"><br></ins><code>x >>= f</code>.</div></td>
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<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
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<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>The question which x receives involves f, the computation which conceptually <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">'</del>follows<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">'</del> after x is finished deciding on what value to supply to it. Can a carefully-constructed x somehow sneakily manage to recover the function f from that question, and use it in determining what value it will then supply to that question?</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>The question which <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"><code></ins>x<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"></code></ins> receives involves <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"><code></ins>f<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"></code></ins>, the computation which conceptually <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"</ins>follows<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"</ins> after <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"><code></ins>x<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"></code></ins> is finished deciding on what value to supply to it. Can a carefully-constructed <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"><code></ins>x<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"></code></ins> somehow sneakily manage to recover the function <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"><code></ins>f<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline"></code></ins> from that question, and use it in determining what value it will then supply to that question?</div></td>
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<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
<td class="diff-marker"> </td>
<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
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<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>The answer is that effectively, yes, it can.</div></td>
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<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>The answer is that effectively, yes, it can.</div></td>
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<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div></haskell></div></td>
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<td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>TODO: Finish the explanation of what this means in terms of the question/answer approach.</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">''</ins>TODO: Finish the explanation of what this means in terms of the question/answer approach.<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">''</ins></div></td>
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Atravers
https://wiki.haskell.org/index.php?title=Cont_computations_as_question-answering_boxes&diff=63875&oldid=prev
Gwern: Reverted edits by Tomjaguarpaw (talk) to last revision by CaleGibbard
2021-02-06T15:18:36Z
<p>Reverted edits by <a href="/Special:Contributions/Tomjaguarpaw" title="Special:Contributions/Tomjaguarpaw">Tomjaguarpaw</a> (<a href="/User_talk:Tomjaguarpaw" title="User talk:Tomjaguarpaw">talk</a>) to last revision by <a href="/User:CaleGibbard" title="User:CaleGibbard">CaleGibbard</a></p>
<table class="diff diff-contentalign-left diff-editfont-monospace" data-mw="interface">
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<td colspan="2" style="background-color: #fff; color: #202122; text-align: center;">← Older revision</td>
<td colspan="2" style="background-color: #fff; color: #202122; text-align: center;">Revision as of 15:18, 6 February 2021</td>
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<td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno">Line 1:</td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>== Basic idea and definitions ==</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>The basic idea behind the Cont monad is that in place of values of type t, you work with functions of type (t -> r) -> r, where r is some "response" type. Breaking this down a bit, you can think of a function of type t -> r as a question about a value of type t which has a response of type r -- for a yes or no question, r might be Bool, for instance. Then a function of type (t -> r) -> r, is like a box which takes a question about a value of type t, and produces an answer from that question.</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>In Haskell syntax, we define a new datatype to wrap up this idea:</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><haskell></div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>newtype Cont r t = Cont ((t -> r) -> r)</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div> -- a value of type Cont r t is of the form Cont f,</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div> -- where f is a function of type (t -> r) -> r</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div></haskell></div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
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<tr>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>We'd also, for convenience, define a function:</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><haskell></div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>runCont (Cont f) q = f q</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div></haskell></div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Which, given a Cont computation and a question, basically asks the question to get a response.</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>The simplest way to make such a box is for the box to just hang on to a value of type t, and answer questions about it truthfully, by simply applying them to the value. (The fun will happen later, when we come up with more twisted ways to get answers.)</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>This is embodied in the continuation monad by the function: </div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><haskell></div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>return :: t -> Cont r t</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div> -- return takes a value of type t</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div> -- and produces a Cont computation of type t with response type r.</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>return x = Cont (\q -> q x)</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div> -- produce a Cont computation which given a question q,</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div> -- applies the question to the value x.</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div></haskell></div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>(The notation (\x -> ...) is a [[Lambda abstraction]].)</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Now, given a computation of type (Cont r t), and a ''continuation'' which is a function taking a value of type t to some computation of type (Cont r s), we'd like to have a way to join them together, producing a computation of type (Cont r s). That's a bit brain twisting, so let's think about how we might do it...</div></td>
</tr>
<tr>
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<td class="diff-marker">+</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-empty"> </td>
<td class="diff-marker">+</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>We're constructing a box which is going to receive a question q about a value of type s, and has to answer it somehow.</div></td>
</tr>
<tr>
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<td class="diff-marker">+</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-empty"> </td>
<td class="diff-marker">+</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>We have a box, which we'll call x, which answers questions about a value of type t.</div></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-empty"> </td>
<td class="diff-marker">+</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-empty"> </td>
<td class="diff-marker">+</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>We also have a function, f, which given a value of type t, will give a box which answers a question about a value of type s.</div></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-empty"> </td>
<td class="diff-marker">+</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-empty"> </td>
<td class="diff-marker">+</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>So what do we do? We ask x the question "if f were applied to your value v of type t, how would the resulting box respond to the question q?"</div></td>
</tr>
<tr>
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<td class="diff-marker">+</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-empty"> </td>
<td class="diff-marker">+</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>The operation which does this funny gluing together is called <code>>>=</code> (pronounced bind), and is implemented like this:</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-empty"> </td>
<td class="diff-marker">+</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><haskell></div></td>
</tr>
<tr>
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<td class="diff-marker">+</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>(>>=) :: Cont r t -> (t -> Cont r s) -> Cont r s</div></td>
</tr>
<tr>
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<td class="diff-marker">+</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>x >>= f = Cont (\q -> runCont x (\v -> runCont (f v) q))</div></td>
</tr>
<tr>
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<td class="diff-marker">+</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div></haskell></div></td>
</tr>
<tr>
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<td class="diff-marker">+</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-empty"> </td>
<td class="diff-marker">+</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>So we have what is effectively a fancy version of function application, which instead of working with straightforward values, works with these funky boxes that answer questions about values of the appropriate type.</div></td>
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<tr>
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<td class="diff-marker">+</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-empty"> </td>
<td class="diff-marker">+</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>== Laws ==</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-empty"> </td>
<td class="diff-marker">+</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>There are three things which are true of the operations we've defined so far:</div></td>
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<td class="diff-marker">+</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-empty"> </td>
<td class="diff-marker">+</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>* <code>return v >>= f</code> is the same as <code>f v</code></div></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-empty"> </td>
<td class="diff-marker">+</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>* <code>x >>= return</code> is the same as <code>x</code></div></td>
</tr>
<tr>
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<td class="diff-marker">+</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>* <code>(x >>= f) >>= g</code> is the same as <code>x >>= (\v -> f v >>= g)</code></div></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-empty"> </td>
<td class="diff-marker">+</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-empty"> </td>
<td class="diff-marker">+</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>You might want to try to verify them as an exercise. These are the three monad laws, which makes <code>Cont r</code> a monad for any given response type r.</div></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-empty"> </td>
<td class="diff-marker">+</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-empty"> </td>
<td class="diff-marker">+</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>== Being sneaky: manipulating questions and responses ==</div></td>
</tr>
<tr>
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<td class="diff-marker">+</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-empty"> </td>
<td class="diff-marker">+</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>With only these operations, things are rather boring. The first and second rules above basically tell us that anything we can express just in terms of <code>>>=</code> and <code>return</code>, we can also express without.</div></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-empty"> </td>
<td class="diff-marker">+</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-empty"> </td>
<td class="diff-marker">+</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>However, by working with black boxes that answer questions about values of type t, rather than values of type t directly, the boxes we construct can take steps to manipulate the question or response.</div></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-empty"> </td>
<td class="diff-marker">+</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-empty"> </td>
<td class="diff-marker">+</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Given any function f which turns a question about a value of type s into a question about a value of type t, we can turn a box x which answers questions about a value of type t into a box which answers questions about a value of type s. In code:</div></td>
</tr>
<tr>
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<td class="diff-marker">+</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-empty"> </td>
<td class="diff-marker">+</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><haskell></div></td>
</tr>
<tr>
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<td class="diff-marker">+</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>withCont :: ((s -> r) -> (t -> r)) -> Cont r t -> Cont r s</div></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-empty"> </td>
<td class="diff-marker">+</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>withCont f x = Cont (runCont x . f)</div></td>
</tr>
<tr>
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<td class="diff-marker">+</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div></haskell></div></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-empty"> </td>
<td class="diff-marker">+</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-empty"> </td>
<td class="diff-marker">+</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>That is, simply apply the function to the question first, and then ask x how it would answer.</div></td>
</tr>
<tr>
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<td class="diff-marker">+</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-empty"> </td>
<td class="diff-marker">+</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Furthermore, given any function (r -> r), which transforms responses somehow, and any box x, we can easily construct a box which asks the box x how it would respond to a question, and then transforms the response.</div></td>
</tr>
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<td class="diff-marker">+</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
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<td class="diff-marker">+</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><haskell></div></td>
</tr>
<tr>
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<td class="diff-marker">+</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>mapCont :: (r -> r) -> Cont r t -> Cont r t</div></td>
</tr>
<tr>
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<td class="diff-marker">+</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>mapCont f x = Cont (f . runCont x)</div></td>
</tr>
<tr>
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<td class="diff-marker">+</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div></haskell></div></td>
</tr>
<tr>
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<td class="diff-marker">+</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-empty"> </td>
<td class="diff-marker">+</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>You certainly can't do either of these things with plain values! For example, let's consider the value <code>mapCont not (return 0) :: Cont Bool Integer</code>. It is a box that gives the opposite response to any True/False question that one would get if one asked the same question about the number 0. For example, we might do something like:</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
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<td class="diff-marker">+</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><haskell></div></td>
</tr>
<tr>
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<td class="diff-marker">+</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>ghci> runCont (mapCont not (return 0) >>= \t -> return (t < 0 && t > 0)) id</div></td>
</tr>
<tr>
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<td class="diff-marker">+</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>True</div></td>
</tr>
<tr>
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<td class="diff-marker">+</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div></haskell></div></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-empty"> </td>
<td class="diff-marker">+</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-empty"> </td>
<td class="diff-marker">+</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>The value 't' in the above is apparently a number which gives the appearance of simultaneously being both less than and greater than 0! Of course, what's really happening is that the test is turning out False and being negated after.</div></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-empty"> </td>
<td class="diff-marker">+</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-empty"> </td>
<td class="diff-marker">+</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>== Being sneakier: Making the result depend directly on the question ==</div></td>
</tr>
<tr>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>There's an interesting insight to be had in thinking about the question that the computation <code>x</code> is given in the application <code>x >>= f</code>.</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>The question which x receives involves f, the computation which conceptually 'follows' after x is finished deciding on what value to supply to it. Can a carefully-constructed x somehow sneakily manage to recover the function f from that question, and use it in determining what value it will then supply to that question?</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><haskell></div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>callCC :: ((t -> Cont r s) -> Cont r t) -> Cont r t</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>callCC g = Cont (\q -> runCont (g (\v -> Cont (\_ -> q v))) q)</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div></haskell></div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>TODO: Finish the explanation of what this means in terms of the question/answer approach.</div></td>
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Gwern
https://wiki.haskell.org/index.php?title=Cont_computations_as_question-answering_boxes&diff=63722&oldid=prev
Tomjaguarpaw: Deleting page that hasn't been edited for over 10 years
2021-02-06T14:15:45Z
<p>Deleting page that hasn't been edited for over 10 years</p>
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<td colspan="2" style="background-color: #fff; color: #202122; text-align: center;">← Older revision</td>
<td colspan="2" style="background-color: #fff; color: #202122; text-align: center;">Revision as of 14:15, 6 February 2021</td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>The basic idea behind the Cont monad is that in place of values of type t, you work with functions of type (t -> r) -> r, where r is some "response" type. Breaking this down a bit, you can think of a function of type t -> r as a question about a value of type t which has a response of type r -- for a yes or no question, r might be Bool, for instance. Then a function of type (t -> r) -> r, is like a box which takes a question about a value of type t, and produces an answer from that question.</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>In Haskell syntax, we define a new datatype to wrap up this idea:</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><haskell></div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>newtype Cont r t = Cont ((t -> r) -> r)</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div> -- a value of type Cont r t is of the form Cont f,</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>We'd also, for convenience, define a function:</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><haskell></div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>runCont (Cont f) q = f q</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div></haskell></div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Which, given a Cont computation and a question, basically asks the question to get a response.</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>The simplest way to make such a box is for the box to just hang on to a value of type t, and answer questions about it truthfully, by simply applying them to the value. (The fun will happen later, when we come up with more twisted ways to get answers.)</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>This is embodied in the continuation monad by the function: </div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><haskell></div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>return :: t -> Cont r t</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div> -- return takes a value of type t</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div> -- and produces a Cont computation of type t with response type r.</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>return x = Cont (\q -> q x)</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div> -- produce a Cont computation which given a question q,</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div> -- applies the question to the value x.</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div></haskell></div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>(The notation (\x -> ...) is a [[Lambda abstraction]].)</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Now, given a computation of type (Cont r t), and a ''continuation'' which is a function taking a value of type t to some computation of type (Cont r s), we'd like to have a way to join them together, producing a computation of type (Cont r s). That's a bit brain twisting, so let's think about how we might do it...</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>We're constructing a box which is going to receive a question q about a value of type s, and has to answer it somehow.</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>We have a box, which we'll call x, which answers questions about a value of type t.</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>We also have a function, f, which given a value of type t, will give a box which answers a question about a value of type s.</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>So what do we do? We ask x the question "if f were applied to your value v of type t, how would the resulting box respond to the question q?"</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><haskell></div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>(>>=) :: Cont r t -> (t -> Cont r s) -> Cont r s</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>x >>= f = Cont (\q -> runCont x (\v -> runCont (f v) q))</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div></haskell></div></td>
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<td class="diff-marker">−</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-empty"> </td>
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<td class="diff-marker">−</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>So we have what is effectively a fancy version of function application, which instead of working with straightforward values, works with these funky boxes that answer questions about values of the appropriate type.</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-empty"> </td>
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<td class="diff-marker">−</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>== Laws ==</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-empty"> </td>
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<td class="diff-marker">−</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>There are three things which are true of the operations we've defined so far:</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-empty"> </td>
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<td class="diff-marker">−</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>* <code>return v >>= f</code> is the same as <code>f v</code></div></td>
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<td class="diff-marker">−</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>* <code>x >>= return</code> is the same as <code>x</code></div></td>
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<td class="diff-marker">−</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>* <code>(x >>= f) >>= g</code> is the same as <code>x >>= (\v -> f v >>= g)</code></div></td>
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<td class="diff-marker">−</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-empty"> </td>
</tr>
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<td class="diff-marker">−</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>You might want to try to verify them as an exercise. These are the three monad laws, which makes <code>Cont r</code> a monad for any given response type r.</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-empty"> </td>
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<td class="diff-marker">−</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>== Being sneaky: manipulating questions and responses ==</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-empty"> </td>
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<td class="diff-marker">−</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>With only these operations, things are rather boring. The first and second rules above basically tell us that anything we can express just in terms of <code>>>=</code> and <code>return</code>, we can also express without.</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-empty"> </td>
</tr>
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<td class="diff-marker">−</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>However, by working with black boxes that answer questions about values of type t, rather than values of type t directly, the boxes we construct can take steps to manipulate the question or response.</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-empty"> </td>
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<td class="diff-marker">−</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Given any function f which turns a question about a value of type s into a question about a value of type t, we can turn a box x which answers questions about a value of type t into a box which answers questions about a value of type s. In code:</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-empty"> </td>
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<td class="diff-marker">−</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><haskell></div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>withCont :: ((s -> r) -> (t -> r)) -> Cont r t -> Cont r s</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>withCont f x = Cont (runCont x . f)</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div></haskell></div></td>
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<td class="diff-marker">−</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-empty"> </td>
</tr>
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<td class="diff-marker">−</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>That is, simply apply the function to the question first, and then ask x how it would answer.</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-empty"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="diff-marker">−</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Furthermore, given any function (r -> r), which transforms responses somehow, and any box x, we can easily construct a box which asks the box x how it would respond to a question, and then transforms the response.</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-empty"> </td>
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<td class="diff-marker">−</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><haskell></div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>mapCont :: (r -> r) -> Cont r t -> Cont r t</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>mapCont f x = Cont (f . runCont x)</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div></haskell></div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
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<td class="diff-marker">−</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>You certainly can't do either of these things with plain values! For example, let's consider the value <code>mapCont not (return 0) :: Cont Bool Integer</code>. It is a box that gives the opposite response to any True/False question that one would get if one asked the same question about the number 0. For example, we might do something like:</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><haskell></div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>ghci> runCont (mapCont not (return 0) >>= \t -> return (t < 0 && t > 0)) id</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>True</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div></haskell></div></td>
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<td class="diff-marker">−</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-empty"> </td>
</tr>
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<td class="diff-marker">−</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>The value 't' in the above is apparently a number which gives the appearance of simultaneously being both less than and greater than 0! Of course, what's really happening is that the test is turning out False and being negated after.</div></td>
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<td class="diff-marker">−</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-empty"> </td>
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<td class="diff-marker">−</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>== Being sneakier: Making the result depend directly on the question ==</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
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<td class="diff-marker">−</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>There's an interesting insight to be had in thinking about the question that the computation <code>x</code> is given in the application <code>x >>= f</code>.</div></td>
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<td class="diff-marker">−</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-empty"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="diff-marker">−</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>The question which x receives involves f, the computation which conceptually 'follows' after x is finished deciding on what value to supply to it. Can a carefully-constructed x somehow sneakily manage to recover the function f from that question, and use it in determining what value it will then supply to that question?</div></td>
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<td class="diff-marker">−</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-empty"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="diff-marker">−</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>The answer is that effectively, yes, it can.</div></td>
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<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
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<td class="diff-marker">−</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><haskell></div></td>
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<td class="diff-marker">−</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>callCC :: ((t -> Cont r s) -> Cont r t) -> Cont r t</div></td>
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<tr>
<td class="diff-marker">−</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>callCC g = Cont (\q -> runCont (g (\v -> Cont (\_ -> q v))) q)</div></td>
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<td class="diff-marker">−</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div></haskell></div></td>
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<td class="diff-marker">−</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-empty"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="diff-marker">−</td>
<td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>TODO: Finish the explanation of what this means in terms of the question/answer approach.</div></td>
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Tomjaguarpaw
https://wiki.haskell.org/index.php?title=Cont_computations_as_question-answering_boxes&diff=21123&oldid=prev
CaleGibbard at 05:18, 30 May 2008
2008-05-30T05:18:13Z
<p></p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>== Basic idea and definitions ==<br />
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The basic idea behind the Cont monad is that in place of values of type t, you work with functions of type (t -> r) -> r, where r is some "response" type. Breaking this down a bit, you can think of a function of type t -> r as a question about a value of type t which has a response of type r -- for a yes or no question, r might be Bool, for instance. Then a function of type (t -> r) -> r, is like a box which takes a question about a value of type t, and produces an answer from that question.<br />
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In Haskell syntax, we define a new datatype to wrap up this idea:<br />
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<haskell><br />
newtype Cont r t = Cont ((t -> r) -> r)<br />
-- a value of type Cont r t is of the form Cont f,<br />
-- where f is a function of type (t -> r) -> r<br />
</haskell><br />
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We'd also, for convenience, define a function:<br />
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<haskell><br />
runCont (Cont f) q = f q<br />
</haskell><br />
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Which, given a Cont computation and a question, basically asks the question to get a response.<br />
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The simplest way to make such a box is for the box to just hang on to a value of type t, and answer questions about it truthfully, by simply applying them to the value. (The fun will happen later, when we come up with more twisted ways to get answers.)<br />
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This is embodied in the continuation monad by the function: <br />
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<haskell><br />
return :: t -> Cont r t<br />
-- return takes a value of type t<br />
-- and produces a Cont computation of type t with response type r.<br />
return x = Cont (\q -> q x)<br />
-- produce a Cont computation which given a question q,<br />
-- applies the question to the value x.<br />
</haskell><br />
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(The notation (\x -> ...) is a [[Lambda abstraction]].)<br />
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Now, given a computation of type (Cont r t), and a ''continuation'' which is a function taking a value of type t to some computation of type (Cont r s), we'd like to have a way to join them together, producing a computation of type (Cont r s). That's a bit brain twisting, so let's think about how we might do it...<br />
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We're constructing a box which is going to receive a question q about a value of type s, and has to answer it somehow.<br />
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We have a box, which we'll call x, which answers questions about a value of type t.<br />
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We also have a function, f, which given a value of type t, will give a box which answers a question about a value of type s.<br />
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So what do we do? We ask x the question "if f were applied to your value v of type t, how would the resulting box respond to the question q?"<br />
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The operation which does this funny gluing together is called <code>>>=</code> (pronounced bind), and is implemented like this:<br />
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<haskell><br />
(>>=) :: Cont r t -> (t -> Cont r s) -> Cont r s<br />
x >>= f = Cont (\q -> runCont x (\v -> runCont (f v) q))<br />
</haskell><br />
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So we have what is effectively a fancy version of function application, which instead of working with straightforward values, works with these funky boxes that answer questions about values of the appropriate type.<br />
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== Laws ==<br />
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There are three things which are true of the operations we've defined so far:<br />
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* <code>return v >>= f</code> is the same as <code>f v</code><br />
* <code>x >>= return</code> is the same as <code>x</code><br />
* <code>(x >>= f) >>= g</code> is the same as <code>x >>= (\v -> f v >>= g)</code><br />
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You might want to try to verify them as an exercise. These are the three monad laws, which makes <code>Cont r</code> a monad for any given response type r.<br />
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== Being sneaky: manipulating questions and responses ==<br />
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With only these operations, things are rather boring. The first and second rules above basically tell us that anything we can express just in terms of <code>>>=</code> and <code>return</code>, we can also express without.<br />
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However, by working with black boxes that answer questions about values of type t, rather than values of type t directly, the boxes we construct can take steps to manipulate the question or response.<br />
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Given any function f which turns a question about a value of type s into a question about a value of type t, we can turn a box x which answers questions about a value of type t into a box which answers questions about a value of type s. In code:<br />
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<haskell><br />
withCont :: ((s -> r) -> (t -> r)) -> Cont r t -> Cont r s<br />
withCont f x = Cont (runCont x . f)<br />
</haskell><br />
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That is, simply apply the function to the question first, and then ask x how it would answer.<br />
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Furthermore, given any function (r -> r), which transforms responses somehow, and any box x, we can easily construct a box which asks the box x how it would respond to a question, and then transforms the response.<br />
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<haskell><br />
mapCont :: (r -> r) -> Cont r t -> Cont r t<br />
mapCont f x = Cont (f . runCont x)<br />
</haskell><br />
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You certainly can't do either of these things with plain values! For example, let's consider the value <code>mapCont not (return 0) :: Cont Bool Integer</code>. It is a box that gives the opposite response to any True/False question that one would get if one asked the same question about the number 0. For example, we might do something like:<br />
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<haskell><br />
ghci> runCont (mapCont not (return 0) >>= \t -> return (t < 0 && t > 0)) id<br />
True<br />
</haskell><br />
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The value 't' in the above is apparently a number which gives the appearance of simultaneously being both less than and greater than 0! Of course, what's really happening is that the test is turning out False and being negated after.<br />
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== Being sneakier: Making the result depend directly on the question ==<br />
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There's an interesting insight to be had in thinking about the question that the computation <code>x</code> is given in the application <code>x >>= f</code>.<br />
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The question which x receives involves f, the computation which conceptually 'follows' after x is finished deciding on what value to supply to it. Can a carefully-constructed x somehow sneakily manage to recover the function f from that question, and use it in determining what value it will then supply to that question?<br />
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The answer is that effectively, yes, it can.<br />
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<haskell><br />
callCC :: ((t -> Cont r s) -> Cont r t) -> Cont r t<br />
callCC g = Cont (\q -> runCont (g (\v -> Cont (\_ -> q v))) q)<br />
</haskell><br />
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TODO: Finish the explanation of what this means in terms of the question/answer approach.</div>
CaleGibbard