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From: Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: "...the value becomes,indeterminate each time the declaration is reached"
Date: Sun, 10 Feb 2019 12:43:31 -0800
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Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.c:140837

Malcolm McLean <malcolm.arthur.mclean@gmail.com> writes:
[...]
> A compiler turns some strings into executables and rejects others. So
> it has grammar rules, in the first sense. What's confusing you is that
> in basic computer science class rules for composing strings like "aab
> aaaabaabaaaaab" are described as "grammars". The strings have a form,
> but don't mean anything. So the so-called "grammar" actually lacks an
> essential attribute of grammar. Then it's not sufficient, it needs 
> extra higher level rules if it is to specify a real programming language.
[...]

No, what's confusing *you* is that, in the context of programming
languages, the word "grammar" is used to refer to *syntax*, in the
sense defined, for example, in Annex A of the C standard.

A.1 is titled "Lexical grammar".  A.2 is titled "Phase structure
grammar".

Rules defining constraints and semantics are not referred to as
"grammar" rules.  I understand that the word "grammar" might be
appropriate by analogy with the way we talk about, for example,
English grammar, but that's not the way the word is typically used
for programming languages.

You insist on using the word "grammar" in a much wider sense,
and you refuse to acknowledge that any other use of the word could
be correct.

I don't expect you to acknowledge the possibility that you might
be wrong.

-- 
Keith Thompson (The_Other_Keith) kst-u@mib.org  <http://www.ghoti.net/~kst>
Will write code for food.
void Void(void) { Void(); } /* The recursive call of the void */