Specializing continuations a model for dynamic join points

By modeling dynamic join points, pointcuts, and advice in a defunctionalized continuation-passing style interpreter, we provide a fundamental account of these AOP mechanisms. Dynamic join points develop in a principled and natural way as activations of continuation frames. Pointcuts arise directly in the semantic specification as predicates identifying continuation frames. Advice models procedures operating on continuations, specializing the behaviour of continuation frames. In this way, an essential form of AOP is seen, neither as meta-programming nor as an ad hoc extension, but as an intrinsic feature of programming languages.