BNF

A formalism used to define programming language syntax. Attributed to John Backus and Peter Naur and invented to describe the syntax of Algol 60 in an unambigious manner. Its first use in a publication may be The syntax and semantics of the proposed international algebraic language of the Zurich ACM-GAMM conference which appears in the Proceedings of the International Conference on Information Processing (ICIP) of June 1959.

Now superseded by EBNF.

Herman Venter

This is Slim documentation as snarfed on 27 May 1999 by dB.