Sitaram, Dorai2017-08-022017-08-021994-04Sitaram, Dorai. "Models of Control and Their Implications for Programming Language Design." (1994) https://hdl.handle.net/1911/96443.https://hdl.handle.net/1911/96443This work was also published as a Rice University thesis/dissertation: http://hdl.handle.net/1911/16775This work uses denotational models to understand and improve the part of a programming language concerned with non-local control operators. These operators let the programmer identify and restore arbitrary control contexts in the program execution path, and thus form a powerful component of many modern programming languages. We use a variety of denotational models to tackle the issues of (1) describing a control language mathematically, and (2) using the model's apparatus to obtain information useful for designing the language. For this, the full abstraction criterion of testing a model against a language is viewed as a feedback loop that suggests language changes. The results from radically different models, for a variety of control manipulation languages uniformly emphasize the need for delimiting control actions. In the case of higher-order control, this takes the form of a systematic handling of control objects. To check the pragmatics of the new control techniques, we present an implementation and many examples where these delimiters and handlers provide elegant solutions.166 ppengYou are granted permission for the noncommercial reproduction, distribution, display, and performance of this technical report in any format, but this permission is only for a period of forty-five (45) days from the most recent time that you verified that this technical report is still available from the Computer Science Department of Rice University under terms that include this permission. All other rights are reserved by the author(s).Models of Control and Their Implications for Programming Language DesignTechnical reportTR94-233