Re: Representations of grammars

davidm@questor.rational.com (David Moore)
Mon, 28 Jun 1993 17:39:15 GMT

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Newsgroups: comp.compilers
From: davidm@questor.rational.com (David Moore)
Keywords: parse, EBNF, comment
Organization: Rational
References: 93-06-063 93-06-073
Date: Mon, 28 Jun 1993 17:39:15 GMT

>>1. Backus-Naur Form (also Backus Normal Form).
>> - created by John Backus; modified by Peter Naur.


P.G.Hamer@bnr.co.uk (Peter Hamer) writes:


>I don't think that Peter Naur modified BNF, I understood that the acronym was
>modified to reflect his role in their use; chair of the Algol 60 committee,
>on which John Backus sat. [I believe that's correct. -John]


As someone who came in late (circa 1973) I am a little puzzled by the
above. Did BNF originally stand for "Backus Normal Form". I had always
assumed that "Backus-Naur Form" was the original expansion, and that
"Backus Normal Form" was erroneous.


Was BNF originally considered to be a normal form in the mathematical sense?


Dave Moore.
[The N in BNF used to stand for Normal. But I don't know why. -John]
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