research-article

Effect handlers in scope

Authors:

Nicolas Wu,

Tom Schrijvers,

Ralf HinzeAuthors Info & Claims

ACM SIGPLAN Notices, Volume 49, Issue 12

Pages 1 - 12

https://doi.org/10.1145/2775050.2633358

Published: 03 September 2014 Publication History

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Abstract

Algebraic effect handlers are a powerful means for describing effectful computations. They provide a lightweight and orthogonal technique to define and compose the syntax and semantics of different effects. The semantics is captured by handlers, which are functions that transform syntax trees.

Unfortunately, the approach does not support syntax for scoping constructs, which arise in a number of scenarios. While handlers can be used to provide a limited form of scope, we demonstrate that this approach constrains the possible interactions of effects and rules out some desired semantics.

This paper presents two different ways to capture scoped constructs in syntax, and shows how to achieve different semantics by reordering handlers. The first approach expresses scopes using the existing algebraic handlers framework, but has some limitations. The problem is fully solved in the second approach where we introduce higher-order syntax.

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Cited By

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van den Berg BSchrijvers T(2024)A framework for higher-order effects & handlersScience of Computer Programming10.1016/j.scico.2024.103086234:COnline publication date: 1-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1016/j.scico.2024.103086
Punchihewa HWu NHage J(2021)Safe mutation with algebraic effectsProceedings of the 14th ACM SIGPLAN International Symposium on Haskell10.1145/3471874.3472988(122-135)Online publication date: 18-Aug-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3471874.3472988
van den Berg BSchrijvers TPoulsen CWu N(2021)Latent Effects for Reusable Language ComponentsProgramming Languages and Systems10.1007/978-3-030-89051-3_11(182-201)Online publication date: 12-Oct-2021
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-89051-3_11
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Index Terms

Effect handlers in scope
1. Software and its engineering
  1. Software notations and tools
    1. General programming languages
      1. Language types
        Functional languages

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Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

ACM SIGPLAN Notices Volume 49, Issue 12

Haskell '14

December 2014

141 pages

ISSN:0362-1340

EISSN:1558-1160

DOI:10.1145/2775050

Editor:
Andy Gill
University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS

Issue’s Table of Contents

Haskell '14: Proceedings of the 2014 ACM SIGPLAN symposium on Haskell
September 2014
154 pages
ISBN:9781450330411
DOI:10.1145/2633357
Program Chair:
Wouter Swierstra
Universiteit Utrecht, the Netherlands

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than the author(s) must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected].

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 03 September 2014

Published in SIGPLAN Volume 49, Issue 12

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Cited By

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van den Berg BSchrijvers T(2024)A framework for higher-order effects & handlersScience of Computer Programming10.1016/j.scico.2024.103086234:COnline publication date: 1-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1016/j.scico.2024.103086
Punchihewa HWu NHage J(2021)Safe mutation with algebraic effectsProceedings of the 14th ACM SIGPLAN International Symposium on Haskell10.1145/3471874.3472988(122-135)Online publication date: 18-Aug-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3471874.3472988
van den Berg BSchrijvers TPoulsen CWu N(2021)Latent Effects for Reusable Language ComponentsProgramming Languages and Systems10.1007/978-3-030-89051-3_11(182-201)Online publication date: 12-Oct-2021
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-89051-3_11
Wei GBračevac OTan SRompf T(2020)Compiling symbolic execution with staging and algebraic effectsProceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages10.1145/34282324:OOPSLA(1-33)Online publication date: 13-Nov-2020
https://doi.org/10.1145/3428232
Brachthäuser JSchuster POstermann K(2020)Effects as capabilities: effect handlers and lightweight effect polymorphismProceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages10.1145/34281944:OOPSLA(1-30)Online publication date: 13-Nov-2020
https://doi.org/10.1145/3428194
Pauwels KSchrijvers TMu S(2019)Handling Local State with Global StateMathematics of Program Construction10.1007/978-3-030-33636-3_2(18-44)Online publication date: 20-Oct-2019
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33636-3_2
Wu NSchrijvers T(2015)Fusion for FreeMathematics of Program Construction10.1007/978-3-319-19797-5_15(302-322)Online publication date: 9-Jun-2015
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-19797-5_15
Bunkenburg NWu NVazou NMorris J(2024)Making a Curry Interpreter using Effects and HandlersProceedings of the 17th ACM SIGPLAN International Haskell Symposium10.1145/3677999.3678279(68-82)Online publication date: 29-Aug-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3677999.3678279
Xie NJohnson DMaclaurin DPaszke A(2024)Parallel Algebraic Effect HandlersProceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages10.1145/36746518:ICFP(756-788)Online publication date: 15-Aug-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3674651
Kidney DYang ZWu N(2024)Algebraic Effects Meet Hoare Logic in Cubical AgdaProceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages10.1145/36328988:POPL(1663-1695)Online publication date: 5-Jan-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3632898
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