[geeks] RIP John Backus

[Lionel Peterson]

>From: Sridhar Ayengar <ploopster at gmail.com>
>Date: 2007/03/21 Wed PM 01:40:45 CDT
>To: The Geeks List <geeks at sunhelp.org>
>Subject: Re: [geeks] RIP John Backus

>Lionel Peterson wrote:
>>> 8-(
>>> 
>>> http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/19/obituaries/20cnd-backus.html
>> 
>> Peter Naur appears to still be with us: 
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Naur
>> 
>> I remember the effect of the BNF representation of Pascal in the
>> Original Users Guide by Niklaus Wirth had on me as a youth - it
>> fascinated me and got me to thinking beyond mere syntax and command
>> structure in programming...
>> 
>> BNF: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backus-Naur_form
>
>Language design is a bit of a hobby for me.  BNF is an invaluable tool. 
>   There are people who aren't familiar with it, who try to convey their
>ideas to the community at large, and it always seems that their ad-hoc
>pseudocode lacks a certain unambiguous quality.  They usually end up
>learning BNF quickly.  It's not like it's complicated.
>
>If I could ever meet Peter Naur, I'd love to be able to shake his hand
>and thank him.  I guess I've lost that chance with John Backus.  8-/

Depends on what your beliefs are w/r/t the after life...

Lionel