Category:Continuation

Ruby 1.9 moved the method Kernel#callcc and the class Continuation from the core language to a standard library. Starting with Ruby 1.9, programs that use these features must require 'continuation'.

# This code works with both Ruby 1.8 and Ruby 1.9.
require 'continuation' unless defined? Continuation

Most Ruby programs will never use this library.

1. MRI has a slow implementation of continuations.
2. Continuations make spaghetti code with very confusing control flow.

---

Kernel#callcc creates a continuation. Continuation#call, also known as Continuation#[], continues the program from the place that called Kernel#callcc. With a continuation, you can continue a function call after it ends.

def f
  puts "1st line of output"
  callcc { |cc| return cc }  # f ends with a return...
  puts "3rd line of output"
  return nil
end
 
cont = f
if cont
  puts "2nd line of output"
  cont.call                  # ...but this continues f
end

Kernel#callcc from Ruby is like call-with-current-continuation from Scheme, and almost like setjmp from C, except that setjmp saves less information. (With setjmp, you must not continue a function call after it ends, because C frees the stack frame when it ends.)