Abstract
To specify a programming language we must specify its syntax and semantics. The syntax of a programming language specifies which strings of symbols constitute valid programs. A formal description of the syntax typically involves a precise specification of the alphabet of allowable symbols and a finite set of rules delineating how symbols may be grouped into expressions, instructions, and programs. Most compilers for programming languages are implemented with syntax checking whereby the first stage in compiling a program is to check its text to see if it is syntactically valid. In practice, syntax must be described at two levels, for a human user through programming manuals and as a syntax-checking algorithm within a compiler or interpreter.
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Notes and References for Chapter 1
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© 1986 Springer-Verlag New York Inc.
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Manes, E.G., Arbib, M.A. (1986). An Introduction to Denotational Semantics. In: Algebraic Approaches to Program Semantics. Texts and Monographs in Computer Science. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-4962-7_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-4962-7_1
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