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Formal Specifications

• Syntax: Backus-Naur Form (BNF)
  • Correspondence between BNF and parser.
  • Input to parser generator.
• Semantics: ?
  • Precise Standard for implementation.
  • Useful user documentation.
  • Tool for design and analysis of language
  • Input to compiler generator.

Semantics is much more difficult to describe ("semantics is everything that cannot be described in BNF").