Basic Syntax

 

The following is a part of the Noos syntax that is being used in this chapter--and forms the basic, commonly used syntax. For the complete syntax see Chapter A.

 
concept-description     		 ::=      		 named-description

                       		     		 named-ref-description

                       		     		 anonymous-description

                       		     		 metalevel-description

                       		     		 default-description

named-description      		 ::=      		
                (define concept-name feature-description*)

named-ref-description 		 ::=   		  
				(define (constituent concept-name)
					   feature-description*)

anonymous-description  		 ::=      		
                (define (constituent) feature-description*)

metalevel-description  		 ::=   		
	(define (constituent (meta+ of concept-name))

					   		  		  		 feature-description*)

default-description    		 ::=   		
	(define (constituent ( [default] meta* of concept-name))

					   		  		  		 feature-description*)

feature-description 		 ::=   		    (feature-name feature-value*)

		     		 ((feature-name anonymous-description*))

feature-value       		 ::=   		 concept-name    anonymous-description    query-description

query-description      		 ::=   		 (op feature-name* [of concept-name])

op                     		 ::=   		 >>    ?>>    !>>    *>>

Basic Syntax of Noos

The basic BNF syntax definition for concept descriptions. Bold words are predefined terminal symbols that are part of the language, italic words are used-defined identifiers and ::=, , + and * are part of the BNF formalism. Words in italics denote terminal symbols. The complete syntax specification is in Appendix A.