Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Programming languages: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 20:18, 18 December 2003

Revision as of 20:34, 18 December 2003

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::[[EBNF]] is [[Extended Backus Naur Form]], the standard form for defining a language [[grammar]]. It is an essential component of a language specification. Check out the [http://java.sun.com/docs/books/jls/second_edition/html/jTOC.doc.html Java Language Specification] for a good, if complicated, example. The EBNF comes in handy when writing a compiler. The grammars of most modern programming languages are probably too tedious and long to include in full, but some key productions (aka rules) might be valuable for comparative purposes. So, if one exists, hopefully, as in the Java case, we can just link to it. [[User:Brent Gulanowski|Brent Gulanowski]] 20:18, 18 Dec 2003 (UTC)

==Some possible sections for a standardized format for programming language articles==

===Language origins===

*creator(s)

*companies involved

*original hardware platform

*original operating system

*original compiler

*precursors/descendents

*dates of major versions

===Language characteristics===

Qualities that do not fall under features.

*compiled, interpreted, or both

*suitable programming tasks: system, web, math, science, education, A.I.

*current usage (users, platforms, implementations)

===Langauge features===

*data types: user-derived, heterogeneous, templates, classes

*modularization: sub-routines, procedures, functions, methods

*encapsulation features

*data-hiding and memory access control features

*type checking: static (compile-time), dynamic (run-time), hybrid, other

*run-time environment: fixed memory, function stack, memory allocation

*libraries: I/O, math, GUI, threads (actually threads can be a part of a language, see [[SR programming language]] (SR means "Synchronizing Resources")

*Inter-application communication

===Notable strengths, unique qualities===

===Notable drawbacks and limitations===

===Sample code===

===Key grammar components (EBNF)===

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(I did not want to just add this to the page until we had some more input -- [[User:Brent Gulanowski|Brent Gulanowski]] 20:34, 18 Dec 2003 (UTC))