Notation

The syntax of FO and its extensions is specified using the EBNF notation.

The lexicon lists the tokens of the language. They are specified using Python Regular Expressions. For example, an identifier satisfies [^\d\W]\w*\b. The regular expressions can be tested online, e.g., using pythex.org.

The tokens satisfying a regular expression are denoted by names in upper case, e.g., ID. Non-terminal symbols are specified by production rules and are denoted in CamelCase, e.g., TypeInterpretation. In the body of production rules, terminal symbols are denoted:

• by referring to tokens in the lexicon, e.g., ID;

• using string literals, e.g., 'vocabulary';

• using string interpolation, e.g., 'is_{CONSTRUCTOR}': the terminal symbol is the concatenation of is_ and a CONSTRUCTOR

Some production rules in FO[Core] are modified or extended in other extensions. To allow more modularity, non-terminal strings can be defined by several production rules:

s ← 'A';
s ← 'B' | 'C';

is equivalent to:

s ← 'A' | 'B' | 'C';

The EBNF syntax is not sufficiently precise to define what is a well-formed FO[·] program. So, we complement it with an informal description of “well-formedness” conditions.