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
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