concrete syntax

Abstract syntax is a representation of data (typically either a message passing over a communications link or a computer program being compiled) which is independent of machine-oriented structures and encodings and also of the physical representation of the data (called "concrete syntax" in the case of compilation or "transfer syntax" in communications).
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<language> The concrete syntax of a language including all the features visible in the source program such as parentheses and delimiters. The concrete syntax is used when parsing the program or other input, during which it is usually converted into some kind of abstract syntax tree.
Compare: abstract syntax.
(1997-07-21)