Re: [PHP-DEV] Re: [PHP-LANG] Approaching the First Draft [of a language spec]

On Mon, 20 Nov 2000, Rasmus Lerdorf wrote:

> The way I see this actually working is that someone sits down and writes a
> first draft of this thing.  Probably quite incomplete, but at least it
> will lay out the framework.  From there we complete it as a group.
>
> Historically not too many things have been accomplished through concensus
> and voting and whatever other structure you might put in place.  You need
> to start with some sort of base usually hammered out by either a single
> person or a very small group.
>
> At this point I would prefer to see someone like Sascha just sit down and
> write this base document.  It should be a complete and unambiguous
> language spec using some sort of established language description syntax.
> However, it should also include mere-mortal interpretation hints.
> Something like the following.  I am using BNF since that is what I am
> familiar with, but there might be some better alternatives.

    I agree with everything above.

> I think the important part is to have the combination of the
> rigid definition of something like BNF combined with the
> user-friendly explanation and example text:

    I don't think though that the immediate target here should be
    the end-user. Let's define the semantics clearly and
    unambigously. We can add user-level descriptions later.

    - Sascha