From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.2 (2018-09-13) on inbox.vuxu.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.5 required=5.0 tests=DKIM_ADSP_CUSTOM_MED, DKIM_INVALID,DKIM_SIGNED,FREEMAIL_FORGED_FROMDOMAIN,FREEMAIL_FROM, HEADER_FROM_DIFFERENT_DOMAINS,MAILING_LIST_MULTI,RCVD_IN_DNSWL_NONE autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.2 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (minnie.tuhs.org [45.79.103.53]) by inbox.vuxu.org (OpenSMTPD) with ESMTP id 008ac187 for ; Mon, 3 Dec 2018 20:21:29 +0000 (UTC) Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id B446CA2087; Tue, 4 Dec 2018 06:21:28 +1000 (AEST) Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D91A9A1CE4; Tue, 4 Dec 2018 06:21:13 +1000 (AEST) Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id 033C0A1CE4; Tue, 4 Dec 2018 06:21:07 +1000 (AEST) Received: from mail-lj1-f172.google.com (mail-lj1-f172.google.com [209.85.208.172]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 62DE594A37 for ; Tue, 4 Dec 2018 06:21:01 +1000 (AEST) Received: by mail-lj1-f172.google.com with SMTP id s5-v6so12645372ljd.12 for ; Mon, 03 Dec 2018 12:21:01 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=20161025; h=mime-version:in-reply-to:references:from:date:message-id:subject:to :cc; bh=4oXbltWu/cBb/uasECEy6TrlJa7DM/h4lefAyJIFO0w=; b=rSNj12jKFXJM1P0bSdJrhsQHuRls5cLlA0580jVRnjkxlWvmMp7fKm+/jlivpOXaC7 rQB0jTQc50IFVRweIl4ZbT3g3LEWeaT/GxH6NsdqZhR8axLpV6GsB6VY3gGFJkI3kvuZ Bp5Bt/NK2Bp8wXL/zJuoXra0YuUqiW6dj/ZOopNxJipLXCmJB3QGvj8Lc6aDkRDkTxMM RNX9Q8RbqnvGn3Rpzw4l6RN6iNtmAu1Qm5tP2sRrpoNCl9yz35A2pDNIGMparPrXe/RJ ASu97Ke49rp9hQ/DsVagSmHvSSE4pzuP94b+Xe75tGqKGHhnq0NuXBstLPeoLZ/vXqfP X80A== X-Google-DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=1e100.net; s=20161025; h=x-gm-message-state:mime-version:in-reply-to:references:from:date :message-id:subject:to:cc; bh=4oXbltWu/cBb/uasECEy6TrlJa7DM/h4lefAyJIFO0w=; b=qJPhw9WIOxxFvJGep4s8KHB8sbbD2jPmFnTDb0q5VXo7J7oWXH2qrDXgm3Ve/v+Fbu JH0vzuLcxMxbCTKweXmSj2P0wWfLQ8VrIb+Q9vAz11Y5LZT5+Hdj/9lyG5EHL9X73b9w W659vNhA+iasI3a/wcA5m3A1b3ApYn/RV7M/bnKarUqOA4M1vWhxV4yNwA6Kz7Dwu+Mw Ew8oU2NaAg3dEs8+1msJuKwl4YBczOtaY077R1q8r89nhd3F5QeZ3vh/jWJ83ZpV8wE7 yhFSpVBWeX4/qSKZdbJYaroPiBOFtaljpcGlg10bATaIS6gcftiyte6Jy29SZB99JBTj UUsQ== X-Gm-Message-State: AA+aEWbLuttlUVbgJ3LNLuCN57rYcv4eSj8zC2P2Pb+4IBApFxG/LEkK IkmLFanZGyjvN6a9lLWM/N1f8e204hws6HxO2Jso+g== X-Google-Smtp-Source: AFSGD/VmcUJIprqHYX/2euUIoIR06M3d5IP5v2BtltbKC/0E9VNcz5yytQuLN7QAKaOGrVHqjww8wFDo4vWMp6LKOvk= X-Received: by 2002:a2e:890b:: with SMTP id d11-v6mr10813836lji.113.1543868459815; Mon, 03 Dec 2018 12:20:59 -0800 (PST) MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: by 2002:a2e:3a11:0:0:0:0:0 with HTTP; Mon, 3 Dec 2018 12:20:59 -0800 (PST) In-Reply-To: References: From: Paul Winalski Date: Mon, 3 Dec 2018 15:20:59 -0500 Message-ID: To: Clem Cole Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Subject: Re: [TUHS] Happy birthday, John Backus! X-BeenThere: tuhs@minnie.tuhs.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.20 Precedence: list List-Id: The Unix Heritage Society mailing list List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Cc: The Eunuchs Hysterical Society Errors-To: tuhs-bounces@minnie.tuhs.org Sender: "TUHS" I replied in detail to the child thread on it being impossible to devise a formal grammar for Fortran before I saw this one (its parent). Of course one can write a grammar for Fortran using a formal system such as BNF. It's just not going to be a well-behaved context-free grammar such as one can do for C or Pascal, and you won't be able to feed the grammar to lex and yacc, press a button, and have a compiler pop out. Fortran was being devised at the same time that Chomsky, et. al. were doing the research on formal languages. Essentially, Fortran syntax was devised before computer scientists knew better. I suspect COBOL has similar issues. -Paul W.