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2017 ACM PPoPP Keynote: It's Time for a New Old Language

Guy Steele · talk · Watch on YouTube

Programming language designLogic & formal methodsTech pioneers & interviews

What it is

Guy Steele's PPoPP 2017 keynote surveying the history of computer science metanotation, including BNF, inference rules, and overline notation. He argues the field's notations are inconsistent and fragmented.

Why Hacker News recommends it

HN recommends it as an excellent talk on notation problems, useful when reading papers or designing a new metalanguage.

  • 3 people recommended it
  • 4 different months
  • 0 strong recommendations
  • first 2018, last 2023

What HN commenters said

  1. “He gives a history of metalanguage notations (for both language semantics and syntax, including regexes and CFGs).”

    History of metalanguage notations and their inconsistencies.

    chubot, 2018-01 · Recommendation · in “A practitioner’s guide to reading programming languages papers”

  2. “an excellent talk by Guy Steele that goes over issue of notation and balkanization”

    Excellent talk on notation issues and balkanization.

    seg_lol, 2020-10 · Recommendation · in “Programming language notation is a barrier to entry”

  3. “It’s an interesting talk and is useful in thinking about proposing new notations.”

    Useful for thinking about proposing new notations.

    porcoda, 2023-02 · Recommendation · in “Ask HN: Please Review My Metalanguage”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: metanotation, bnf, inference rules, guy steele, pl theory

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