Formally Defining a Programming Language

From	Seima Rao <seimarao@gmail.com>
Newsgroups	comp.compilers
Subject	Formally Defining a Programming Language
Date	2011-11-19 19:15 +0530
Organization	Compilers Central
Message-ID	<11-11-039@comp.compilers> (permalink)

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Hi,

n designing my own Programming Language and given the existence
of a lot of programming languages and an infinity of "knowhows" that
is the Internet, I resorted to adhoc adaptation methods that worked
incredibly well!

However, now, I want to formalize the definition of my programming
language. I find that the Backus Naur Form is a notation but reaching
to that form requires decisions such as the following illustration
would suggest:

         Illustration of Correct C++
         -----------------------------------

             function_declaration:

                 function_specifier return_type
                     fct_declarator '(' param_decl ')
                         cv_qualifier exception_specification ';'
                 ;

     In this illustration, I am inclined to ask:

     i) What is it that contributes to deciding that
         'inline' should be a separate "specifier"
        in the grammar?

    ii) How did the designers come up with
        something called a "specifier"?

    iii) What is a "specifier" in a non-C/C++ context
          by the way?

Therefore, I suspect that there is a Formal Study of Programming
Languages that occurs in Selected Schools.

Can readers of this forum help direct to relevant materials wrt
Formalism that I can study to learn about Formalisms that will help in
deciding about my Programming Language?

Sincerely,
Seima Rao.

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Formally Defining a Programming Language Seima Rao <seimarao@gmail.com> - 2011-11-19 19:15 +0530
  Re: Formally Defining a Programming Language Kaz Kylheku <kaz@kylheku.com> - 2011-11-21 17:16 +0000
    Re: Formally Defining a Programming Language "s_dubrovich@yahoo.com" <s_dubrovich@yahoo.com> - 2011-11-27 20:58 -0800
  Re: Formally Defining a Programming Language Christophe de Dinechin <christophe@taodyne.com> - 2011-11-22 20:45 -0800
  Re: Formally Defining a Programming Language federation2005@netzero.com - 2012-02-29 17:11 -0800
    Re: Formally Defining a Programming Language glen herrmannsfeldt <gah@ugcs.caltech.edu> - 2012-03-02 22:35 +0000

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