it should be called the Panini-Backus Form

mar 23rd, 2007

ah yes, algol! and later, pascal. pristine programming languages i learned as a graduate student. whereas i had learned fortran (with the inevitable GOTO) as an undergraduate.

i must admit to using APL too, which was the most arcane language i ever studied.

anyway, given the fact that panini invented this stuff 2,500 years ago, they should give him priority. prior art, the kind of thing that people pay attention to in IPR.

there was a move to ask the ACM to officially call it panini-backus form. dont know what became of it.

http://www.infinityfoundation.com/ECITraoframeset.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/20/business/20backus.html?th&emc=th

why does all this matter? here's why: panini's grammar was quite possibly the single greatest invention of a human mind in all of history.