]> git.saurik.com Git - bison.git/blame_incremental - NEWS
Fix ChangeLog.
[bison.git] / NEWS
... / ...
CommitLineData
1Bison News
2----------
3
4* Changes in version ?.? (????-??-??):
5
6** Java skeleton improvements:
7
8 The constants for token names were moved to the Lexer interface.
9 Also, it is possible to add code to the parser's constructors using
10 "%code init" and "%define init_throws".
11
12* Changes in version 2.5 (????-??-??):
13
14** %define can now be invoked via the command line.
15
16 Each of these bison command-line options
17
18 -D NAME=VALUE
19 --define=NAME=VALUE
20
21 is equivalent to this grammar file declaration
22
23 %define NAME "VALUE"
24
25 for any NAME and VALUE. Omitting `=VALUE' on the command line is
26 equivalent to omitting `"VALUE"' in the declaration.
27
28* Changes in version 2.4.2 (????-??-??):
29
30* Changes in version 2.4.1 (2008-12-11):
31
32** In the GLR defines file, unexpanded M4 macros in the yylval and yylloc
33 declarations have been fixed.
34
35** Temporary hack for adding a semicolon to the user action.
36
37 Bison used to prepend a trailing semicolon at the end of the user
38 action for reductions. This allowed actions such as
39
40 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
41
42 instead of
43
44 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
45
46 Some grammars still depend on this `feature'. Bison 2.4.1 restores
47 the previous behavior in the case of C output (specifically, when
48 neither %language or %skeleton or equivalent command-line options
49 are used) to leave more time for grammars depending on the old
50 behavior to be adjusted. Future releases of Bison will disable this
51 feature.
52
53** A few minor improvements to the Bison manual.
54
55* Changes in version 2.4 (2008-11-02):
56
57** %language is an experimental feature.
58
59 We first introduced this feature in test release 2.3b as a cleaner
60 alternative to %skeleton. Since then, we have discussed the possibility of
61 modifying its effect on Bison's output file names. Thus, in this release,
62 we consider %language to be an experimental feature that will likely evolve
63 in future releases.
64
65** Forward compatibility with GNU M4 has been improved.
66
67** Several bugs in the C++ skeleton and the experimental Java skeleton have been
68 fixed.
69
70* Changes in version 2.3b (2008-05-27):
71
72** The quotes around NAME that used to be required in the following directive
73 are now deprecated:
74
75 %define NAME "VALUE"
76
77** The directive `%pure-parser' is now deprecated in favor of:
78
79 %define api.pure
80
81 which has the same effect except that Bison is more careful to warn about
82 unreasonable usage in the latter case.
83
84** Push Parsing
85
86 Bison can now generate an LALR(1) parser in C with a push interface. That
87 is, instead of invoking `yyparse', which pulls tokens from `yylex', you can
88 push one token at a time to the parser using `yypush_parse', which will
89 return to the caller after processing each token. By default, the push
90 interface is disabled. Either of the following directives will enable it:
91
92 %define api.push_pull "push" // Just push; does not require yylex.
93 %define api.push_pull "both" // Push and pull; requires yylex.
94
95 See the new section `A Push Parser' in the Bison manual for details.
96
97 The current push parsing interface is experimental and may evolve. More user
98 feedback will help to stabilize it.
99
100** The -g and --graph options now output graphs in Graphviz DOT format,
101 not VCG format. Like --graph, -g now also takes an optional FILE argument
102 and thus cannot be bundled with other short options.
103
104** Java
105
106 Bison can now generate an LALR(1) parser in Java. The skeleton is
107 `data/lalr1.java'. Consider using the new %language directive instead of
108 %skeleton to select it.
109
110 See the new section `Java Parsers' in the Bison manual for details.
111
112 The current Java interface is experimental and may evolve. More user
113 feedback will help to stabilize it.
114
115** %language
116
117 This new directive specifies the programming language of the generated
118 parser, which can be C (the default), C++, or Java. Besides the skeleton
119 that Bison uses, the directive affects the names of the generated files if
120 the grammar file's name ends in ".y".
121
122** XML Automaton Report
123
124 Bison can now generate an XML report of the LALR(1) automaton using the new
125 `--xml' option. The current XML schema is experimental and may evolve. More
126 user feedback will help to stabilize it.
127
128** The grammar file may now specify the name of the parser header file using
129 %defines. For example:
130
131 %defines "parser.h"
132
133** When reporting useless rules, useless nonterminals, and unused terminals,
134 Bison now employs the terms "useless in grammar" instead of "useless",
135 "useless in parser" instead of "never reduced", and "unused in grammar"
136 instead of "unused".
137
138** Unreachable State Removal
139
140 Previously, Bison sometimes generated parser tables containing unreachable
141 states. A state can become unreachable during conflict resolution if Bison
142 disables a shift action leading to it from a predecessor state. Bison now:
143
144 1. Removes unreachable states.
145
146 2. Does not report any conflicts that appeared in unreachable states.
147 WARNING: As a result, you may need to update %expect and %expect-rr
148 directives in existing grammar files.
149
150 3. For any rule used only in such states, Bison now reports the rule as
151 "useless in parser due to conflicts".
152
153 This feature can be disabled with the following directive:
154
155 %define lr.keep_unreachable_states
156
157 See the %define entry in the `Bison Declaration Summary' in the Bison manual
158 for further discussion.
159
160** Lookahead Set Correction in the `.output' Report
161
162 When instructed to generate a `.output' file including lookahead sets
163 (using `--report=lookahead', for example), Bison now prints each reduction's
164 lookahead set only next to the associated state's one item that (1) is
165 associated with the same rule as the reduction and (2) has its dot at the end
166 of its RHS. Previously, Bison also erroneously printed the lookahead set
167 next to all of the state's other items associated with the same rule. This
168 bug affected only the `.output' file and not the generated parser source
169 code.
170
171** --report-file=FILE is a new option to override the default `.output' file
172 name.
173
174** The `=' that used to be required in the following directives is now
175 deprecated:
176
177 %file-prefix "parser"
178 %name-prefix "c_"
179 %output "parser.c"
180
181** An Alternative to `%{...%}' -- `%code QUALIFIER {CODE}'
182
183 Bison 2.3a provided a new set of directives as a more flexible alternative to
184 the traditional Yacc prologue blocks. Those have now been consolidated into
185 a single %code directive with an optional qualifier field, which identifies
186 the purpose of the code and thus the location(s) where Bison should generate
187 it:
188
189 1. `%code {CODE}' replaces `%after-header {CODE}'
190 2. `%code requires {CODE}' replaces `%start-header {CODE}'
191 3. `%code provides {CODE}' replaces `%end-header {CODE}'
192 4. `%code top {CODE}' replaces `%before-header {CODE}'
193
194 See the %code entries in section `Bison Declaration Summary' in the Bison
195 manual for a summary of the new functionality. See the new section `Prologue
196 Alternatives' for a detailed discussion including the advantages of %code
197 over the traditional Yacc prologues.
198
199 The prologue alternatives are experimental. More user feedback will help to
200 determine whether they should become permanent features.
201
202** Revised warning: unset or unused mid-rule values
203
204 Since Bison 2.2, Bison has warned about mid-rule values that are set but not
205 used within any of the actions of the parent rule. For example, Bison warns
206 about unused $2 in:
207
208 exp: '1' { $$ = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $1 + $4; };
209
210 Now, Bison also warns about mid-rule values that are used but not set. For
211 example, Bison warns about unset $$ in the mid-rule action in:
212
213 exp: '1' { $1 = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $2 + $4; };
214
215 However, Bison now disables both of these warnings by default since they
216 sometimes prove to be false alarms in existing grammars employing the Yacc
217 constructs $0 or $-N (where N is some positive integer).
218
219 To enable these warnings, specify the option `--warnings=midrule-values' or
220 `-W', which is a synonym for `--warnings=all'.
221
222** Default %destructor or %printer with `<*>' or `<>'
223
224 Bison now recognizes two separate kinds of default %destructor's and
225 %printer's:
226
227 1. Place `<*>' in a %destructor/%printer symbol list to define a default
228 %destructor/%printer for all grammar symbols for which you have formally
229 declared semantic type tags.
230
231 2. Place `<>' in a %destructor/%printer symbol list to define a default
232 %destructor/%printer for all grammar symbols without declared semantic
233 type tags.
234
235 Bison no longer supports the `%symbol-default' notation from Bison 2.3a.
236 `<*>' and `<>' combined achieve the same effect with one exception: Bison no
237 longer applies any %destructor to a mid-rule value if that mid-rule value is
238 not actually ever referenced using either $$ or $n in a semantic action.
239
240 The default %destructor's and %printer's are experimental. More user
241 feedback will help to determine whether they should become permanent
242 features.
243
244 See the section `Freeing Discarded Symbols' in the Bison manual for further
245 details.
246
247** %left, %right, and %nonassoc can now declare token numbers. This is required
248 by POSIX. However, see the end of section `Operator Precedence' in the Bison
249 manual for a caveat concerning the treatment of literal strings.
250
251** The nonfunctional --no-parser, -n, and %no-parser options have been
252 completely removed from Bison.
253
254* Changes in version 2.3a, 2006-09-13:
255
256** Instead of %union, you can define and use your own union type
257 YYSTYPE if your grammar contains at least one <type> tag.
258 Your YYSTYPE need not be a macro; it can be a typedef.
259 This change is for compatibility with other Yacc implementations,
260 and is required by POSIX.
261
262** Locations columns and lines start at 1.
263 In accordance with the GNU Coding Standards and Emacs.
264
265** You may now declare per-type and default %destructor's and %printer's:
266
267 For example:
268
269 %union { char *string; }
270 %token <string> STRING1
271 %token <string> STRING2
272 %type <string> string1
273 %type <string> string2
274 %union { char character; }
275 %token <character> CHR
276 %type <character> chr
277 %destructor { free ($$); } %symbol-default
278 %destructor { free ($$); printf ("%d", @$.first_line); } STRING1 string1
279 %destructor { } <character>
280
281 guarantees that, when the parser discards any user-defined symbol that has a
282 semantic type tag other than `<character>', it passes its semantic value to
283 `free'. However, when the parser discards a `STRING1' or a `string1', it
284 also prints its line number to `stdout'. It performs only the second
285 `%destructor' in this case, so it invokes `free' only once.
286
287 [Although we failed to mention this here in the 2.3a release, the default
288 %destructor's and %printer's were experimental, and they were rewritten in
289 future versions.]
290
291** Except for LALR(1) parsers in C with POSIX Yacc emulation enabled (with `-y',
292 `--yacc', or `%yacc'), Bison no longer generates #define statements for
293 associating token numbers with token names. Removing the #define statements
294 helps to sanitize the global namespace during preprocessing, but POSIX Yacc
295 requires them. Bison still generates an enum for token names in all cases.
296
297** Handling of traditional Yacc prologue blocks is now more consistent but
298 potentially incompatible with previous releases of Bison.
299
300 As before, you declare prologue blocks in your grammar file with the
301 `%{ ... %}' syntax. To generate the pre-prologue, Bison concatenates all
302 prologue blocks that you've declared before the first %union. To generate
303 the post-prologue, Bison concatenates all prologue blocks that you've
304 declared after the first %union.
305
306 Previous releases of Bison inserted the pre-prologue into both the header
307 file and the code file in all cases except for LALR(1) parsers in C. In the
308 latter case, Bison inserted it only into the code file. For parsers in C++,
309 the point of insertion was before any token definitions (which associate
310 token numbers with names). For parsers in C, the point of insertion was
311 after the token definitions.
312
313 Now, Bison never inserts the pre-prologue into the header file. In the code
314 file, it always inserts it before the token definitions.
315
316** Bison now provides a more flexible alternative to the traditional Yacc
317 prologue blocks: %before-header, %start-header, %end-header, and
318 %after-header.
319
320 For example, the following declaration order in the grammar file reflects the
321 order in which Bison will output these code blocks. However, you are free to
322 declare these code blocks in your grammar file in whatever order is most
323 convenient for you:
324
325 %before-header {
326 /* Bison treats this block like a pre-prologue block: it inserts it into
327 * the code file before the contents of the header file. It does *not*
328 * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to put
329 * #include's that you want at the top of your code file. A common
330 * example is `#include "system.h"'. */
331 }
332 %start-header {
333 /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file.
334 * In both files, the point of insertion is before any Bison-generated
335 * token, semantic type, location type, and class definitions. This is a
336 * good place to define %union dependencies, for example. */
337 }
338 %union {
339 /* Unlike the traditional Yacc prologue blocks, the output order for the
340 * new %*-header blocks is not affected by their declaration position
341 * relative to any %union in the grammar file. */
342 }
343 %end-header {
344 /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file.
345 * In both files, the point of insertion is after the Bison-generated
346 * definitions. This is a good place to declare or define public
347 * functions or data structures that depend on the Bison-generated
348 * definitions. */
349 }
350 %after-header {
351 /* Bison treats this block like a post-prologue block: it inserts it into
352 * the code file after the contents of the header file. It does *not*
353 * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to declare or
354 * define internal functions or data structures that depend on the
355 * Bison-generated definitions. */
356 }
357
358 If you have multiple occurrences of any one of the above declarations, Bison
359 will concatenate the contents in declaration order.
360
361 [Although we failed to mention this here in the 2.3a release, the prologue
362 alternatives were experimental, and they were rewritten in future versions.]
363
364** The option `--report=look-ahead' has been changed to `--report=lookahead'.
365 The old spelling still works, but is not documented and may be removed
366 in a future release.
367
368* Changes in version 2.3, 2006-06-05:
369
370** GLR grammars should now use `YYRECOVERING ()' instead of `YYRECOVERING',
371 for compatibility with LALR(1) grammars.
372
373** It is now documented that any definition of YYSTYPE or YYLTYPE should
374 be to a type name that does not contain parentheses or brackets.
375
376* Changes in version 2.2, 2006-05-19:
377
378** The distribution terms for all Bison-generated parsers now permit
379 using the parsers in nonfree programs. Previously, this permission
380 was granted only for Bison-generated LALR(1) parsers in C.
381
382** %name-prefix changes the namespace name in C++ outputs.
383
384** The C++ parsers export their token_type.
385
386** Bison now allows multiple %union declarations, and concatenates
387 their contents together.
388
389** New warning: unused values
390 Right-hand side symbols whose values are not used are reported,
391 if the symbols have destructors. For instance:
392
393 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; }
394 | exp "+" exp
395 ;
396
397 will trigger a warning about $$ and $5 in the first rule, and $3 in
398 the second ($1 is copied to $$ by the default rule). This example
399 most likely contains three errors, and could be rewritten as:
400
401 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp
402 { $$ = $1 ? $3 : $5; free ($1 ? $5 : $3); free ($1); }
403 | exp "+" exp
404 { $$ = $1 ? $1 : $3; if ($1) free ($3); }
405 ;
406
407 However, if the original actions were really intended, memory leaks
408 and all, the warnings can be suppressed by letting Bison believe the
409 values are used, e.g.:
410
411 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; (void) ($$, $5); }
412 | exp "+" exp { $$ = $1; (void) $3; }
413 ;
414
415 If there are mid-rule actions, the warning is issued if no action
416 uses it. The following triggers no warning: $1 and $3 are used.
417
418 exp: exp { push ($1); } '+' exp { push ($3); sum (); };
419
420 The warning is intended to help catching lost values and memory leaks.
421 If a value is ignored, its associated memory typically is not reclaimed.
422
423** %destructor vs. YYABORT, YYACCEPT, and YYERROR.
424 Destructors are now called when user code invokes YYABORT, YYACCEPT,
425 and YYERROR, for all objects on the stack, other than objects
426 corresponding to the right-hand side of the current rule.
427
428** %expect, %expect-rr
429 Incorrect numbers of expected conflicts are now actual errors,
430 instead of warnings.
431
432** GLR, YACC parsers.
433 The %parse-params are available in the destructors (and the
434 experimental printers) as per the documentation.
435
436** Bison now warns if it finds a stray `$' or `@' in an action.
437
438** %require "VERSION"
439 This specifies that the grammar file depends on features implemented
440 in Bison version VERSION or higher.
441
442** lalr1.cc: The token and value types are now class members.
443 The tokens were defined as free form enums and cpp macros. YYSTYPE
444 was defined as a free form union. They are now class members:
445 tokens are enumerations of the `yy::parser::token' struct, and the
446 semantic values have the `yy::parser::semantic_type' type.
447
448 If you do not want or can update to this scheme, the directive
449 `%define "global_tokens_and_yystype" "1"' triggers the global
450 definition of tokens and YYSTYPE. This change is suitable both
451 for previous releases of Bison, and this one.
452
453 If you wish to update, then make sure older version of Bison will
454 fail using `%require "2.2"'.
455
456** DJGPP support added.
457\f
458* Changes in version 2.1, 2005-09-16:
459
460** The C++ lalr1.cc skeleton supports %lex-param.
461
462** Bison-generated parsers now support the translation of diagnostics like
463 "syntax error" into languages other than English. The default
464 language is still English. For details, please see the new
465 Internationalization section of the Bison manual. Software
466 distributors should also see the new PACKAGING file. Thanks to
467 Bruno Haible for this new feature.
468
469** Wording in the Bison-generated parsers has been changed slightly to
470 simplify translation. In particular, the message "memory exhausted"
471 has replaced "parser stack overflow", as the old message was not
472 always accurate for modern Bison-generated parsers.
473
474** Destructors are now called when the parser aborts, for all symbols left
475 behind on the stack. Also, the start symbol is now destroyed after a
476 successful parse. In both cases, the behavior was formerly inconsistent.
477
478** When generating verbose diagnostics, Bison-generated parsers no longer
479 quote the literal strings associated with tokens. For example, for
480 a syntax error associated with '%token NUM "number"' they might
481 print 'syntax error, unexpected number' instead of 'syntax error,
482 unexpected "number"'.
483\f
484* Changes in version 2.0, 2004-12-25:
485
486** Possibly-incompatible changes
487
488 - Bison-generated parsers no longer default to using the alloca function
489 (when available) to extend the parser stack, due to widespread
490 problems in unchecked stack-overflow detection. You can "#define
491 YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA 1" to require the use of alloca, but please read
492 the manual to determine safe values for YYMAXDEPTH in that case.
493
494 - Error token location.
495 During error recovery, the location of the syntax error is updated
496 to cover the whole sequence covered by the error token: it includes
497 the shifted symbols thrown away during the first part of the error
498 recovery, and the lookahead rejected during the second part.
499
500 - Semicolon changes:
501 . Stray semicolons are no longer allowed at the start of a grammar.
502 . Semicolons are now required after in-grammar declarations.
503
504 - Unescaped newlines are no longer allowed in character constants or
505 string literals. They were never portable, and GCC 3.4.0 has
506 dropped support for them. Better diagnostics are now generated if
507 forget a closing quote.
508
509 - NUL bytes are no longer allowed in Bison string literals, unfortunately.
510
511** New features
512
513 - GLR grammars now support locations.
514
515 - New directive: %initial-action.
516 This directive allows the user to run arbitrary code (including
517 initializing @$) from yyparse before parsing starts.
518
519 - A new directive "%expect-rr N" specifies the expected number of
520 reduce/reduce conflicts in GLR parsers.
521
522 - %token numbers can now be hexadecimal integers, e.g., `%token FOO 0x12d'.
523 This is a GNU extension.
524
525 - The option `--report=lookahead' was changed to `--report=look-ahead'.
526 [However, this was changed back after 2.3.]
527
528 - Experimental %destructor support has been added to lalr1.cc.
529
530 - New configure option --disable-yacc, to disable installation of the
531 yacc command and -ly library introduced in 1.875 for POSIX conformance.
532
533** Bug fixes
534
535 - For now, %expect-count violations are now just warnings, not errors.
536 This is for compatibility with Bison 1.75 and earlier (when there are
537 reduce/reduce conflicts) and with Bison 1.30 and earlier (when there
538 are too many or too few shift/reduce conflicts). However, in future
539 versions of Bison we plan to improve the %expect machinery so that
540 these violations will become errors again.
541
542 - Within Bison itself, numbers (e.g., goto numbers) are no longer
543 arbitrarily limited to 16-bit counts.
544
545 - Semicolons are now allowed before "|" in grammar rules, as POSIX requires.
546\f
547* Changes in version 1.875, 2003-01-01:
548
549** The documentation license has been upgraded to version 1.2
550 of the GNU Free Documentation License.
551
552** syntax error processing
553
554 - In Yacc-style parsers YYLLOC_DEFAULT is now used to compute error
555 locations too. This fixes bugs in error-location computation.
556
557 - %destructor
558 It is now possible to reclaim the memory associated to symbols
559 discarded during error recovery. This feature is still experimental.
560
561 - %error-verbose
562 This new directive is preferred over YYERROR_VERBOSE.
563
564 - #defining yyerror to steal internal variables is discouraged.
565 It is not guaranteed to work forever.
566
567** POSIX conformance
568
569 - Semicolons are once again optional at the end of grammar rules.
570 This reverts to the behavior of Bison 1.33 and earlier, and improves
571 compatibility with Yacc.
572
573 - `parse error' -> `syntax error'
574 Bison now uniformly uses the term `syntax error'; formerly, the code
575 and manual sometimes used the term `parse error' instead. POSIX
576 requires `syntax error' in diagnostics, and it was thought better to
577 be consistent.
578
579 - The documentation now emphasizes that yylex and yyerror must be
580 declared before use. C99 requires this.
581
582 - Bison now parses C99 lexical constructs like UCNs and
583 backslash-newline within C escape sequences, as POSIX 1003.1-2001 requires.
584
585 - File names are properly escaped in C output. E.g., foo\bar.y is
586 output as "foo\\bar.y".
587
588 - Yacc command and library now available
589 The Bison distribution now installs a `yacc' command, as POSIX requires.
590 Also, Bison now installs a small library liby.a containing
591 implementations of Yacc-compatible yyerror and main functions.
592 This library is normally not useful, but POSIX requires it.
593
594 - Type clashes now generate warnings, not errors.
595
596 - If the user does not define YYSTYPE as a macro, Bison now declares it
597 using typedef instead of defining it as a macro.
598 For consistency, YYLTYPE is also declared instead of defined.
599
600** Other compatibility issues
601
602 - %union directives can now have a tag before the `{', e.g., the
603 directive `%union foo {...}' now generates the C code
604 `typedef union foo { ... } YYSTYPE;'; this is for Yacc compatibility.
605 The default union tag is `YYSTYPE', for compatibility with Solaris 9 Yacc.
606 For consistency, YYLTYPE's struct tag is now `YYLTYPE' not `yyltype'.
607 This is for compatibility with both Yacc and Bison 1.35.
608
609 - `;' is output before the terminating `}' of an action, for
610 compatibility with Bison 1.35.
611
612 - Bison now uses a Yacc-style format for conflict reports, e.g.,
613 `conflicts: 2 shift/reduce, 1 reduce/reduce'.
614
615 - `yystype' and `yyltype' are now obsolescent macros instead of being
616 typedefs or tags; they are no longer documented and are planned to be
617 withdrawn in a future release.
618
619** GLR parser notes
620
621 - GLR and inline
622 Users of Bison have to decide how they handle the portability of the
623 C keyword `inline'.
624
625 - `parsing stack overflow...' -> `parser stack overflow'
626 GLR parsers now report `parser stack overflow' as per the Bison manual.
627
628** Bison now warns if it detects conflicting outputs to the same file,
629 e.g., it generates a warning for `bison -d -o foo.h foo.y' since
630 that command outputs both code and header to foo.h.
631
632** #line in output files
633 - --no-line works properly.
634
635** Bison can no longer be built by a K&R C compiler; it requires C89 or
636 later to be built. This change originally took place a few versions
637 ago, but nobody noticed until we recently asked someone to try
638 building Bison with a K&R C compiler.
639\f
640* Changes in version 1.75, 2002-10-14:
641
642** Bison should now work on 64-bit hosts.
643
644** Indonesian translation thanks to Tedi Heriyanto.
645
646** GLR parsers
647 Fix spurious parse errors.
648
649** Pure parsers
650 Some people redefine yyerror to steal yyparse' private variables.
651 Reenable this trick until an official feature replaces it.
652
653** Type Clashes
654 In agreement with POSIX and with other Yaccs, leaving a default
655 action is valid when $$ is untyped, and $1 typed:
656
657 untyped: ... typed;
658
659 but the converse remains an error:
660
661 typed: ... untyped;
662
663** Values of mid-rule actions
664 The following code:
665
666 foo: { ... } { $$ = $1; } ...
667
668 was incorrectly rejected: $1 is defined in the second mid-rule
669 action, and is equal to the $$ of the first mid-rule action.
670\f
671* Changes in version 1.50, 2002-10-04:
672
673** GLR parsing
674 The declaration
675 %glr-parser
676 causes Bison to produce a Generalized LR (GLR) parser, capable of handling
677 almost any context-free grammar, ambiguous or not. The new declarations
678 %dprec and %merge on grammar rules allow parse-time resolution of
679 ambiguities. Contributed by Paul Hilfinger.
680
681 Unfortunately Bison 1.50 does not work properly on 64-bit hosts
682 like the Alpha, so please stick to 32-bit hosts for now.
683
684** Output Directory
685 When not in Yacc compatibility mode, when the output file was not
686 specified, running `bison foo/bar.y' created `foo/bar.c'. It
687 now creates `bar.c'.
688
689** Undefined token
690 The undefined token was systematically mapped to 2 which prevented
691 the use of 2 by the user. This is no longer the case.
692
693** Unknown token numbers
694 If yylex returned an out of range value, yyparse could die. This is
695 no longer the case.
696
697** Error token
698 According to POSIX, the error token must be 256.
699 Bison extends this requirement by making it a preference: *if* the
700 user specified that one of her tokens is numbered 256, then error
701 will be mapped onto another number.
702
703** Verbose error messages
704 They no longer report `..., expecting error or...' for states where
705 error recovery is possible.
706
707** End token
708 Defaults to `$end' instead of `$'.
709
710** Error recovery now conforms to documentation and to POSIX
711 When a Bison-generated parser encounters a syntax error, it now pops
712 the stack until it finds a state that allows shifting the error
713 token. Formerly, it popped the stack until it found a state that
714 allowed some non-error action other than a default reduction on the
715 error token. The new behavior has long been the documented behavior,
716 and has long been required by POSIX. For more details, please see
717 Paul Eggert, "Reductions during Bison error handling" (2002-05-20)
718 <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-bison/2002-05/msg00038.html>.
719
720** Traces
721 Popped tokens and nonterminals are now reported.
722
723** Larger grammars
724 Larger grammars are now supported (larger token numbers, larger grammar
725 size (= sum of the LHS and RHS lengths), larger LALR tables).
726 Formerly, many of these numbers ran afoul of 16-bit limits;
727 now these limits are 32 bits on most hosts.
728
729** Explicit initial rule
730 Bison used to play hacks with the initial rule, which the user does
731 not write. It is now explicit, and visible in the reports and
732 graphs as rule 0.
733
734** Useless rules
735 Before, Bison reported the useless rules, but, although not used,
736 included them in the parsers. They are now actually removed.
737
738** Useless rules, useless nonterminals
739 They are now reported, as a warning, with their locations.
740
741** Rules never reduced
742 Rules that can never be reduced because of conflicts are now
743 reported.
744
745** Incorrect `Token not used'
746 On a grammar such as
747
748 %token useless useful
749 %%
750 exp: '0' %prec useful;
751
752 where a token was used to set the precedence of the last rule,
753 bison reported both `useful' and `useless' as useless tokens.
754
755** Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31
756 as they caused too many portability hassles.
757
758** Default locations
759 By an accident of design, the default computation of @$ was
760 performed after another default computation was performed: @$ = @1.
761 The latter is now removed: YYLLOC_DEFAULT is fully responsible of
762 the computation of @$.
763
764** Token end-of-file
765 The token end of file may be specified by the user, in which case,
766 the user symbol is used in the reports, the graphs, and the verbose
767 error messages instead of `$end', which remains being the default.
768 For instance
769 %token MYEOF 0
770 or
771 %token MYEOF 0 "end of file"
772
773** Semantic parser
774 This old option, which has been broken for ages, is removed.
775
776** New translations
777 Brazilian Portuguese, thanks to Alexandre Folle de Menezes.
778 Croatian, thanks to Denis Lackovic.
779
780** Incorrect token definitions
781 When given `%token 'a' "A"', Bison used to output `#define 'a' 65'.
782
783** Token definitions as enums
784 Tokens are output both as the traditional #define's, and, provided
785 the compiler supports ANSI C or is a C++ compiler, as enums.
786 This lets debuggers display names instead of integers.
787
788** Reports
789 In addition to --verbose, bison supports --report=THINGS, which
790 produces additional information:
791 - itemset
792 complete the core item sets with their closure
793 - lookahead [changed to `look-ahead' in 1.875e through 2.3, but changed back]
794 explicitly associate lookahead tokens to items
795 - solved
796 describe shift/reduce conflicts solving.
797 Bison used to systematically output this information on top of
798 the report. Solved conflicts are now attached to their states.
799
800** Type clashes
801 Previous versions don't complain when there is a type clash on
802 the default action if the rule has a mid-rule action, such as in:
803
804 %type <foo> bar
805 %%
806 bar: '0' {} '0';
807
808 This is fixed.
809
810** GNU M4 is now required when using Bison.
811\f
812* Changes in version 1.35, 2002-03-25:
813
814** C Skeleton
815 Some projects use Bison's C parser with C++ compilers, and define
816 YYSTYPE as a class. The recent adjustment of C parsers for data
817 alignment and 64 bit architectures made this impossible.
818
819 Because for the time being no real solution for C++ parser
820 generation exists, kludges were implemented in the parser to
821 maintain this use. In the future, when Bison has C++ parsers, this
822 kludge will be disabled.
823
824 This kludge also addresses some C++ problems when the stack was
825 extended.
826\f
827* Changes in version 1.34, 2002-03-12:
828
829** File name clashes are detected
830 $ bison foo.y -d -o foo.x
831 fatal error: header and parser would both be named `foo.x'
832
833** A missing `;' at the end of a rule triggers a warning
834 In accordance with POSIX, and in agreement with other
835 Yacc implementations, Bison will mandate this semicolon in the near
836 future. This eases the implementation of a Bison parser of Bison
837 grammars by making this grammar LALR(1) instead of LR(2). To
838 facilitate the transition, this release introduces a warning.
839
840** Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31, as they caused too
841 many portability hassles.
842
843** DJGPP support added.
844
845** Fix test suite portability problems.
846\f
847* Changes in version 1.33, 2002-02-07:
848
849** Fix C++ issues
850 Groff could not be compiled for the definition of size_t was lacking
851 under some conditions.
852
853** Catch invalid @n
854 As is done with $n.
855\f
856* Changes in version 1.32, 2002-01-23:
857
858** Fix Yacc output file names
859
860** Portability fixes
861
862** Italian, Dutch translations
863\f
864* Changes in version 1.31, 2002-01-14:
865
866** Many Bug Fixes
867
868** GNU Gettext and %expect
869 GNU Gettext asserts 10 s/r conflicts, but there are 7. Now that
870 Bison dies on incorrect %expectations, we fear there will be
871 too many bug reports for Gettext, so _for the time being_, %expect
872 does not trigger an error when the input file is named `plural.y'.
873
874** Use of alloca in parsers
875 If YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA is defined to 0, then the parsers will use
876 malloc exclusively. Since 1.29, but was not NEWS'ed.
877
878 alloca is used only when compiled with GCC, to avoid portability
879 problems as on AIX.
880
881** yyparse now returns 2 if memory is exhausted; formerly it dumped core.
882
883** When the generated parser lacks debugging code, YYDEBUG is now 0
884 (as POSIX requires) instead of being undefined.
885
886** User Actions
887 Bison has always permitted actions such as { $$ = $1 }: it adds the
888 ending semicolon. Now if in Yacc compatibility mode, the semicolon
889 is no longer output: one has to write { $$ = $1; }.
890
891** Better C++ compliance
892 The output parsers try to respect C++ namespaces.
893 [This turned out to be a failed experiment, and it was reverted later.]
894
895** Reduced Grammars
896 Fixed bugs when reporting useless nonterminals.
897
898** 64 bit hosts
899 The parsers work properly on 64 bit hosts.
900
901** Error messages
902 Some calls to strerror resulted in scrambled or missing error messages.
903
904** %expect
905 When the number of shift/reduce conflicts is correct, don't issue
906 any warning.
907
908** The verbose report includes the rule line numbers.
909
910** Rule line numbers are fixed in traces.
911
912** Swedish translation
913
914** Parse errors
915 Verbose parse error messages from the parsers are better looking.
916 Before: parse error: unexpected `'/'', expecting `"number"' or `'-'' or `'(''
917 Now: parse error: unexpected '/', expecting "number" or '-' or '('
918
919** Fixed parser memory leaks.
920 When the generated parser was using malloc to extend its stacks, the
921 previous allocations were not freed.
922
923** Fixed verbose output file.
924 Some newlines were missing.
925 Some conflicts in state descriptions were missing.
926
927** Fixed conflict report.
928 Option -v was needed to get the result.
929
930** %expect
931 Was not used.
932 Mismatches are errors, not warnings.
933
934** Fixed incorrect processing of some invalid input.
935
936** Fixed CPP guards: 9foo.h uses BISON_9FOO_H instead of 9FOO_H.
937
938** Fixed some typos in the documentation.
939
940** %token MY_EOF 0 is supported.
941 Before, MY_EOF was silently renumbered as 257.
942
943** doc/refcard.tex is updated.
944
945** %output, %file-prefix, %name-prefix.
946 New.
947
948** --output
949 New, aliasing `--output-file'.
950\f
951* Changes in version 1.30, 2001-10-26:
952
953** `--defines' and `--graph' have now an optional argument which is the
954 output file name. `-d' and `-g' do not change; they do not take any
955 argument.
956
957** `%source_extension' and `%header_extension' are removed, failed
958 experiment.
959
960** Portability fixes.
961\f
962* Changes in version 1.29, 2001-09-07:
963
964** The output file does not define const, as this caused problems when used
965 with common autoconfiguration schemes. If you still use ancient compilers
966 that lack const, compile with the equivalent of the C compiler option
967 `-Dconst='. autoconf's AC_C_CONST macro provides one way to do this.
968
969** Added `-g' and `--graph'.
970
971** The Bison manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL.
972
973** The input and the output files has automatically a similar extension.
974
975** Russian translation added.
976
977** NLS support updated; should hopefully be less troublesome.
978
979** Added the old Bison reference card.
980
981** Added `--locations' and `%locations'.
982
983** Added `-S' and `--skeleton'.
984
985** `%raw', `-r', `--raw' is disabled.
986
987** Special characters are escaped when output. This solves the problems
988 of the #line lines with path names including backslashes.
989
990** New directives.
991 `%yacc', `%fixed_output_files', `%defines', `%no_parser', `%verbose',
992 `%debug', `%source_extension' and `%header_extension'.
993
994** @$
995 Automatic location tracking.
996\f
997* Changes in version 1.28, 1999-07-06:
998
999** Should compile better now with K&R compilers.
1000
1001** Added NLS.
1002
1003** Fixed a problem with escaping the double quote character.
1004
1005** There is now a FAQ.
1006\f
1007* Changes in version 1.27:
1008
1009** The make rule which prevented bison.simple from being created on
1010 some systems has been fixed.
1011\f
1012* Changes in version 1.26:
1013
1014** Bison now uses automake.
1015
1016** New mailing lists: <bug-bison@gnu.org> and <help-bison@gnu.org>.
1017
1018** Token numbers now start at 257 as previously documented, not 258.
1019
1020** Bison honors the TMPDIR environment variable.
1021
1022** A couple of buffer overruns have been fixed.
1023
1024** Problems when closing files should now be reported.
1025
1026** Generated parsers should now work even on operating systems which do
1027 not provide alloca().
1028\f
1029* Changes in version 1.25, 1995-10-16:
1030
1031** Errors in the input grammar are not fatal; Bison keeps reading
1032the grammar file, and reports all the errors found in it.
1033
1034** Tokens can now be specified as multiple-character strings: for
1035example, you could use "<=" for a token which looks like <=, instead
1036of chosing a name like LESSEQ.
1037
1038** The %token_table declaration says to write a table of tokens (names
1039and numbers) into the parser file. The yylex function can use this
1040table to recognize multiple-character string tokens, or for other
1041purposes.
1042
1043** The %no_lines declaration says not to generate any #line preprocessor
1044directives in the parser file.
1045
1046** The %raw declaration says to use internal Bison token numbers, not
1047Yacc-compatible token numbers, when token names are defined as macros.
1048
1049** The --no-parser option produces the parser tables without including
1050the parser engine; a project can now use its own parser engine.
1051The actions go into a separate file called NAME.act, in the form of
1052a switch statement body.
1053\f
1054* Changes in version 1.23:
1055
1056The user can define YYPARSE_PARAM as the name of an argument to be
1057passed into yyparse. The argument should have type void *. It should
1058actually point to an object. Grammar actions can access the variable
1059by casting it to the proper pointer type.
1060
1061Line numbers in output file corrected.
1062\f
1063* Changes in version 1.22:
1064
1065--help option added.
1066\f
1067* Changes in version 1.20:
1068
1069Output file does not redefine const for C++.
1070
1071Local Variables:
1072mode: outline
1073End:
1074
1075-----
1076
1077Copyright (C) 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003,
10782004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
1079
1080This file is part of Bison, the GNU Parser Generator.
1081
1082This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
1083it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
1084the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
1085(at your option) any later version.
1086
1087This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
1088but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
1089MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
1090GNU General Public License for more details.
1091
1092You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
1093along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.