[Tutor] understanding pydoc try

[Steve Willoughby]

On 30-Aug-12 08:22, Dave Angel wrote:
> On 08/30/2012 10:43 AM, John Maclean wrote:
>> On 08/30/2012 03:05 PM, Dave Angel wrote:
>>>
>>> <snip>
>>
>> Thanks. This is a heck of a lot more clearer to me! BNF, huh? Another
>> set TLA that I don't need to know ;-)
>>
>
> I learned BNF in about 1972.  I've used about 35 languages since (not
> counting hobby ones).  It can clarify a new language better than many
> paragraphs of description.  But I've found that it's seldom completely
> rigorous.

True, usually because people aren't as careful writing it as they are 
real code that needs to be executed by something.  Maybe it would help 
to start by describing your grammar to YACC, getting it to work, and 
then expressing that back out as BNF (or just leaving it in YACC code).


-- 
Steve Willoughby / steve at alchemy.com
"A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for."
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