Grammar Description Languages
John Backus proposed "metalinguistic formulas" to describe the syntax of the new programming language IAL, known today as ALGOL 58 (1959). Backus's work was based on the Post canonical system devised by Emil Post.
Further development of ALGOL led to ALGOL 60; in its report (1963), Peter Naur named Backus's notation Backus Normal Form (BNF), and simplified it to minimize the character set used. However, Donald Knuth argued that BNF should rather be read as Backus–Naur Form, and that has become the commonly accepted usage.
Niklaus Wirth defined Extended Backus–Naur Form (EBNF), a refined version of BNF, in the early 1970s for PL/0. Augmented Backus–Naur Form (ABNF) is another variant. Both EBNF and ABNF are widely used to specify the grammar of programming languages, as the inputs to parser generators, and in other fields such as defining communication protocols.
Read more about this topic: History Of Compiler Construction
Famous quotes containing the words grammar, description and/or languages:
“Syntax is the study of the principles and processes by which sentences are constructed in particular languages. Syntactic investigation of a given language has as its goal the construction of a grammar that can be viewed as a device of some sort for producing the sentences of the language under analysis.”
—Noam Chomsky (b. 1928)
“An intentional object is given by a word or a phrase which gives a description under which.”
—Gertrude Elizabeth Margaret Anscombe (b. 1919)
“Science and technology multiply around us. To an increasing extent they dictate the languages in which we speak and think. Either we use those languages, or we remain mute.”
—J.G. (James Graham)