Hacker News Reader

The reason why Sanskrit seems so interesting for programmers is that it was first language to have formal rules for grammar over 2400 years ago.

Panini defined Sanskrit grammar using Bakus-Naur rules and meta rules.

http://mathomathis.blogspot.in/2010/08/backus-naur-form-pani...

View on HN

This is very true, although one minor nitpick is that you should say "formal written rules" for grammar. The rules appear in fact appear to be more formal and consistent in the centuries before Panini, and the need to write them down (including the aforementioned sandhi rules) was partially due to inconsistencies derived from the evolution of the language.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com