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To: python-list@python.org
From: Dave Angel <davea@davea.name>
Subject: Re: Python Front-end to GCC
Date: Tue, 22 Oct 2013 04:39:21 +0000 (UTC)
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On 22/10/2013 00:24, Mark Janssen wrote:

>> A language specification in BNF is just syntax. It doesn't say anything
>> about semantics. So how could this be used to produce executable C code
>> for a program? BNF is used to produce parsers. But a parser isn't
>> sufficient.
>
> A C program is just syntax also.  How does the compiler generate
> executable machine code?  Extrapolate into a Python front-end to C.
>

Did you even read the paragraph you quoted above?  The BNF specification
does NOT completely describe a language, it only defines its syntax.  So
if the only thing you knew about C was its BNF, you could certainly not
write a C compiler.  And neither could anyone else.  Fortunately for the
C community, the language specification included much more than a BNF
grammar.  At a minimum, you have to specify both the syntax and the
semantics.

All that has nothing to do with an actual program written in an
actually defined language, whether C or Python.

-- 
DaveA