User:Ian Clark/BackusNaurFormOfJterms

Backus-Naur Form (BNF) of J terminology

This is the BNF Grammar of a J phrase. I try to stretch it to cover all useful J terminology, but a purely syntactic description will not distinguish a J <Name> from a J <Word> (which I take to be a <Name> in-use) without some underlying notion of "in-use" (viz. as the result of creating a locale, or using =. or =:).

Also I've probably confounded a J phrase with the thing inside the J session that gets created when a phrase is executed with success.

Non-BNF conventions:

• <etc> : continue with alternatives in the same vein
• <text starting with lowercase> : an informal description outside BNF scope
• <CapitalisedWordOrCamelCase> : a BNF token expanded in the list below.
• We take <Thing> <Thing> to mean separation by one or more spaces, whereas <Thing><Thing> anyway means no spaces at all.

Notes:

• <Token> : any part of the partition of a phrase done by (;:).
• Ascii control chars have been omitted from the Grammar
• <Literal> deliberately has a more restricted meaning than: any atom of (a.). It's got to exclude LF, for instance. But should it also exclude NUL and TAB, maybe others?
• This grammar will have to restrict itself to maximally-parenthesized phrases in which all tokens are separated by a space. Else it gets unnecessarily elaborate.

<Nothing>::=

<Space>::= <ascii space character>

<Bar>::= <ascii vertical bar character>

<Letter>::= A | a | B | b | <etc>

<Digit>::= 0 | 1 | 2 | <etc>

<SingleQuote>::= <ascii single-quote character>

<TwoQuotes>::= <SingleQuote><SingleQuote>

<Linend>:: <ascii linend character>

<Symbol>::= <Bar> | ! | " | # | $ | % | & | * | + | , | - | . | / | : | ; | < | = | > | ? | @ | [ | \ | ] | ^ | _ | ` | { | } | ~

<HardLiteral>::=  <Letter> | <Digit> | <Symbol>

<StringLiteral>::= <HardLiteral> | <Space> | <TwoQuotes>

<StringLiterals>::= <StringLiteral> | <StringLiterals><StringLiteral>

<Literal>::= <Space> | <SingleQuote> | <HardLiteral>

<Literals>::= <Nothing> | <Literal> | <Literals><Literal>

<Inflection>::= <Nothing> | . | :

<Punctuation>::= ( | )

<Comment>::= NB.<Literals>

<NameLiteral>::= <Letter> | <Digit> | _

<BareName>::= <Letter> | <Letter><NameLiteral> | <BareName><NameLiteral>

<Locative>::= _<BareName>_

<Name>::= <BareName> | <BareName><Locative>

<NumberConstantAtom>::= <TOBEDEFINED>

<LiteralAtom>::= <SingleQuote><StringLiteral><SingleQuote>

<String>::= <SingleQuote><StringLiterals><SingleQuote>

<NumberConstant>::= <NumberConstantAtom> | <NumberConstant> <NumberConstantAtom>

<Constant>::= <String> | <NumberConstant>

<Primitive>::= = | =. | =: | < | <. | <etc>

<Token>::= <Punctuation> | <Comment> | <Name> | <Constant> | <Primitive>

<With>::= <a system-pairing which the J interpreter recognises>

<Noun>::= <TOBEDEFINED>

<Adverb>::= <TOBEDEFINED>

<Conjunction>::= <TOBEDEFINED>

<Monad>::= <TOBEDEFINED>

<Dyad>::= <TOBEDEFINED>

<Train>::= <Hook> | <Fork> | <Train> <Train>

<Verb>::= <Monad> | <Dyad> | <Train> | <ModArg> <Adverb> | <ModArg> <Conjunction> <Modarg>

<ModArg>::= <Verb> | <Noun>

<Value>::= <Noun> | <Adverb> | <Conjunction> | <Verb>

<Word>::= <Name> <With> <Value>

<Hook>::= <TOBEDEFINED>

<Fork>::= <TOBEDEFINED>

<Phrase>::= (<Phrase>) | <Name> | <Name> =. <Phrase> | <Name> =: <Phrase> | <Value>

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