Bnf grammar for a new programming language

What a fascinating task!

BNF (Backus-Naur Form) is a notation system used to describe the syntax of a programming language. Here's an example of a simple BNF grammar for a new programming language, which we'll call "Lingua".

Lingua BNF Grammar

Lexical Structure

• IDENTIFIER ::= [a-zA-Z_][a-zA-Z0-9_]*
• INTEGER ::= [0-9]+
• STRING ::= "[^\"]*"
• WHITESPACE ::= [ \t\r\n]+

Syntax

• Program ::= Statement*
• Statement ::= Expression ;
• Expression ::= Term (+ Term)*
• Term ::= Factor (* Factor)*
• Factor ::= IDENTIFIER | INTEGER | STRING | ( Expression )
• Assignment ::= IDENTIFIER = Expression
• IfStatement ::= if Expression then Statement (else Statement)*
• WhileStatement ::= while Expression do Statement

Syntax Rules

1. A program consists of one or more statements, separated by semicolons.
2. A statement is either an expression followed by a semicolon, or an assignment statement.
3. An expression is a term optionally followed by one or more additions.
4. A term is a factor optionally followed by one or more multiplications.
5. A factor is an identifier, an integer, a string, or a parenthesized expression.
6. An assignment statement consists of an identifier followed by an equals sign and an expression.
7. An if statement consists of the keyword "if", an expression, the keyword "then", and a statement. Optionally, it may also include an "else" clause with a statement.
8. A while statement consists of the keyword "while", an expression, the keyword "do", and a statement.

Example Code

Here's an example of a valid Lingua program:

x = 5;
y = 3;
if x > y then print "x is greater";
while x > 0 do x = x - 1;

This program defines two variables x and y, assigns them values, and then prints a message if x is greater than y. It also decrements x until it reaches 0.

Note that this is a very simple grammar, and you may want to add more features to your language, such as functions, arrays, or object-oriented programming. You can use this grammar as a starting point and modify it to fit your needs.