Bnf

3 definitions found

From Virtual Entity of Relevant Acronyms (Version 1.9, June 2002) [vera]:

  BNF
       Backus-Naur Form (TTCN, ...)
       
       

From Jargon File (4.3.1, 29 Jun 2001) [jargon]:



  BNF /B-N-F/ n. 1. [techspeak] Acronym for `Backus Normal Form' (later
     retronymed to `Backus-Naur Form' because BNF was not in fact a normal
     form), a metasyntactic notation used to specify the syntax of
     programming languages, command sets, and the like. Widely used for
     language descriptions but seldom documented anywhere, so that it must
     usually be learned by osmosis from other hackers. Consider this BNF for
     a U.S. postal address:
  
      ::=   
    
      ::=  |  "."
    
      ::=   [] 
                   |  
    
      ::= []   
    
      ::=  ","   
    
     This translates into English as: "A postal-address consists of a
     name-part, followed by a street-address part, followed by a zip-code
     part. A personal-part consists of either a first name or an initial
     followed by a dot. A name-part consists of either: a personal-part
     followed by a last name followed by an optional `jr-part' (Jr., Sr., or
     dynastic number) and end-of-line, or a personal part followed by a name
     part (this rule illustrates the use of recursion in BNFs, covering the
     case of people who use multiple first and middle names and/or initials).
     A street address consists of an optional apartment specifier, followed
     by a street number, followed by a street name. A zip-part consists of a
     town-name, followed by a comma, followed by a state code, followed by a
     ZIP-code followed by an end-of-line." Note that many things (such as the
     format of a personal-part, apartment specifier, or ZIP-code) are left
     unspecified. These are presumed to be obvious from context or detailed
     somewhere nearby. See also {parse}. 2. Any of a number of variants and
     extensions of BNF proper, possibly containing some or all of the
     {regexp} wildcards such as `*' or `+'. In fact the example above isn't
     the pure form invented for the Algol-60 report; it uses `[]', which was
     introduced a few years later in IBM's PL/I definition but is now
     universally recognized. 3. In {{science-fiction fandom}}, a `Big-Name
     Fan' (someone famous or notorious). Years ago a fan started handing out
     black-on-green BNF buttons at SF conventions; this confused the hacker
     contingent terribly.
  
  

From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:

  BNF
       
          {Backus-Naur Form}.  Originally Backus Normal Form.
       
          [{Jargon File}]