CPE 197 – Computer Methods in Engineeing

Electrical and Computer Engineering

21 of 30

UAH

CPE 112

Syntax and Semantics

•Syntax consists of the formal rules governing how valid instructions are written in a programming language. (grammar)

•Semantics consists of the set of rules that determines the meaning of instructions written in a programming language. (meaning)

•A metalanguage is a language that is used to write the syntax rules for another language.

•In this book, we write the syntax rules for C++ using a metalanguage called a syntax template.