Path: csiph.com!v102.xanadu-bbs.net!xanadu-bbs.net!enother.net!peer02.iad.highwinds-media.com!news.highwinds-media.com!feed-me.highwinds-media.com!border1.nntp.dca1.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!news.iecc.com!.POSTED!nerds-end From: Stefan Monnier Newsgroups: comp.compilers Subject: Re: specifying semantics, was Formatting of Language LRMs Date: Thu, 03 Jul 2014 10:15:24 -0400 Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Lines: 11 Sender: news@iecc.com Approved: comp.compilers@iecc.com Message-ID: <14-07-006@comp.compilers> References: <14-06-010@comp.compilers> <14-06-023@comp.compilers> <14-06-025@comp.compilers> <14-06-027@comp.compilers> <14-06-030@comp.compilers> <14-06-031@comp.compilers> <14-07-003@comp.compilers> NNTP-Posting-Host: news.iecc.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain X-Trace: miucha.iecc.com 1404449831 81550 2001:470:1f07:1126:0:676f:7373:6970 (4 Jul 2014 04:57:11 GMT) X-Complaints-To: abuse@iecc.com NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 4 Jul 2014 04:57:11 +0000 (UTC) Keywords: syntax, history Posted-Date: 04 Jul 2014 00:57:11 EDT X-submission-address: compilers@iecc.com X-moderator-address: compilers-request@iecc.com X-FAQ-and-archives: http://compilers.iecc.com X-Received-Bytes: 1598 X-Received-Body-CRC: 3939298650 Xref: csiph.com comp.compilers:1296 > What is conventionally called "syntax" is an artifact of the compiler > technology (or maybe of specification technology, see below): I disagree here. It is no accident. Same as the split between lexical and syntactic analysis, the division between syntax and (static) semantics is an engineering issue: specifying a language is a fairly large amount of work, so you want to split it into simpler parts. Stefan