2.14 Notes and Further Reading

We refer readers to Webber (2008) for a practical, more detailed discussion of formal languages, grammars, and automata theory.

John Backus and Peter Naur are the recipients of the 1977 and 2005 ACM A. M. Turing Awards, respectively, in part, for their contributions to language design (through Fortran and ALGOL 60, respectively) and their contributions of formal methods for the specification of programming languages.

Attribute grammars are a formalism contributed by Donald Knuth, which can be used to capture semantics in a practical way; these grammars are context-free grammars annotated with semantics rules and checks. Knuth is the recipient of the 1974 ACM A. M. Turing Award for contributions to programming language design, including attribute grammars, and to “the art of computer programming”—communicated through his monograph titled The Art of Computer Programming.