Journal of the ACM (JACM)
Communications of the ACM
A method of syntax specification
Communications of the ACM
A nonrecursive method of syntax specification
Communications of the ACM
Revised report on the algorithm language ALGOL 60
Communications of the ACM
Documentation problems: ALGOL 60
Communications of the ACM
On the nonexistence of a phrase structure grammar for ALGOL 60
Communications of the ACM
ALGOL Bulletin
The Mathematical Theory of Context-Free Languages
The Mathematical Theory of Context-Free Languages
Property grammars and table machines
SWAT '68 Proceedings of the 9th Annual Symposium on Switching and Automata Theory (swat 1968)
SWAT '68 Proceedings of the 9th Annual Symposium on Switching and Automata Theory (swat 1968)
On the formal definition of PL/I
AFIPS '68 (Spring) Proceedings of the April 30--May 2, 1968, spring joint computer conference
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The syntax of ALGOL is specified in its defining report by a grammar whose rules are given in Backus-Naur Form (BNF). Because of the need for precision in the specification of complex systems, BNF has been used to record the syntax of many other programming languages. The rules of BNF are equivalent to context-free production rules. However, due to its declarations, ALGOL is context-dependent, and its syntax cannot be fully specified by a grammar limited to context-free rules. Other grammars for ALGOL are more compact than the BNF of the defining report, but they are generatively no more powerful. Because of this context-dependency of declarations, even an assembly language cannot be fully specified in BNF.