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Commit | Line | Data |
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1 | Bison News | |
2 | ---------- | |
3 | ||
4 | * Changes in version 2.5.1 (????-??-??): | |
5 | ||
6 | ** Some portability problems in the test suite have been fixed. | |
7 | ||
8 | ** Minor improvements have been made to the manual. | |
9 | ||
10 | * Changes in version 2.5 (2011-05-14): | |
11 | ||
12 | ** Grammar symbol names can now contain non-initial dashes: | |
13 | ||
14 | Consistently with directives (such as %error-verbose) and with | |
15 | %define variables (e.g. push-pull), grammar symbol names may contain | |
16 | dashes in any position except the beginning. This is a GNU | |
17 | extension over POSIX Yacc. Thus, use of this extension is reported | |
18 | by -Wyacc and rejected in Yacc mode (--yacc). | |
19 | ||
20 | ** Named references: | |
21 | ||
22 | Historically, Yacc and Bison have supported positional references | |
23 | ($n, $$) to allow access to symbol values from inside of semantic | |
24 | actions code. | |
25 | ||
26 | Starting from this version, Bison can also accept named references. | |
27 | When no ambiguity is possible, original symbol names may be used | |
28 | as named references: | |
29 | ||
30 | if_stmt : "if" cond_expr "then" then_stmt ';' | |
31 | { $if_stmt = mk_if_stmt($cond_expr, $then_stmt); } | |
32 | ||
33 | In the more common case, explicit names may be declared: | |
34 | ||
35 | stmt[res] : "if" expr[cond] "then" stmt[then] "else" stmt[else] ';' | |
36 | { $res = mk_if_stmt($cond, $then, $else); } | |
37 | ||
38 | Location information is also accessible using @name syntax. When | |
39 | accessing symbol names containing dots or dashes, explicit bracketing | |
40 | ($[sym.1]) must be used. | |
41 | ||
42 | These features are experimental in this version. More user feedback | |
43 | will help to stabilize them. | |
44 | ||
45 | ** IELR(1) and canonical LR(1): | |
46 | ||
47 | IELR(1) is a minimal LR(1) parser table generation algorithm. That | |
48 | is, given any context-free grammar, IELR(1) generates parser tables | |
49 | with the full language-recognition power of canonical LR(1) but with | |
50 | nearly the same number of parser states as LALR(1). This reduction | |
51 | in parser states is often an order of magnitude. More importantly, | |
52 | because canonical LR(1)'s extra parser states may contain duplicate | |
53 | conflicts in the case of non-LR(1) grammars, the number of conflicts | |
54 | for IELR(1) is often an order of magnitude less as well. This can | |
55 | significantly reduce the complexity of developing of a grammar. | |
56 | ||
57 | Bison can now generate IELR(1) and canonical LR(1) parser tables in | |
58 | place of its traditional LALR(1) parser tables, which remain the | |
59 | default. You can specify the type of parser tables in the grammar | |
60 | file with these directives: | |
61 | ||
62 | %define lr.type lalr | |
63 | %define lr.type ielr | |
64 | %define lr.type canonical-lr | |
65 | ||
66 | The default-reduction optimization in the parser tables can also be | |
67 | adjusted using `%define lr.default-reductions'. For details on both | |
68 | of these features, see the new section `Tuning LR' in the Bison | |
69 | manual. | |
70 | ||
71 | These features are experimental. More user feedback will help to | |
72 | stabilize them. | |
73 | ||
74 | ** LAC (Lookahead Correction) for syntax error handling: | |
75 | ||
76 | Canonical LR, IELR, and LALR can suffer from a couple of problems | |
77 | upon encountering a syntax error. First, the parser might perform | |
78 | additional parser stack reductions before discovering the syntax | |
79 | error. Such reductions can perform user semantic actions that are | |
80 | unexpected because they are based on an invalid token, and they | |
81 | cause error recovery to begin in a different syntactic context than | |
82 | the one in which the invalid token was encountered. Second, when | |
83 | verbose error messages are enabled (with %error-verbose or the | |
84 | obsolete `#define YYERROR_VERBOSE'), the expected token list in the | |
85 | syntax error message can both contain invalid tokens and omit valid | |
86 | tokens. | |
87 | ||
88 | The culprits for the above problems are %nonassoc, default | |
89 | reductions in inconsistent states, and parser state merging. Thus, | |
90 | IELR and LALR suffer the most. Canonical LR can suffer only if | |
91 | %nonassoc is used or if default reductions are enabled for | |
92 | inconsistent states. | |
93 | ||
94 | LAC is a new mechanism within the parsing algorithm that solves | |
95 | these problems for canonical LR, IELR, and LALR without sacrificing | |
96 | %nonassoc, default reductions, or state merging. When LAC is in | |
97 | use, canonical LR and IELR behave almost exactly the same for both | |
98 | syntactically acceptable and syntactically unacceptable input. | |
99 | While LALR still does not support the full language-recognition | |
100 | power of canonical LR and IELR, LAC at least enables LALR's syntax | |
101 | error handling to correctly reflect LALR's language-recognition | |
102 | power. | |
103 | ||
104 | Currently, LAC is only supported for deterministic parsers in C. | |
105 | You can enable LAC with the following directive: | |
106 | ||
107 | %define parse.lac full | |
108 | ||
109 | See the new section `LAC' in the Bison manual for additional | |
110 | details including a few caveats. | |
111 | ||
112 | LAC is an experimental feature. More user feedback will help to | |
113 | stabilize it. | |
114 | ||
115 | ** %define improvements: | |
116 | ||
117 | *** Can now be invoked via the command line: | |
118 | ||
119 | Each of these command-line options | |
120 | ||
121 | -D NAME[=VALUE] | |
122 | --define=NAME[=VALUE] | |
123 | ||
124 | -F NAME[=VALUE] | |
125 | --force-define=NAME[=VALUE] | |
126 | ||
127 | is equivalent to this grammar file declaration | |
128 | ||
129 | %define NAME ["VALUE"] | |
130 | ||
131 | except that the manner in which Bison processes multiple definitions | |
132 | for the same NAME differs. Most importantly, -F and --force-define | |
133 | quietly override %define, but -D and --define do not. For further | |
134 | details, see the section `Bison Options' in the Bison manual. | |
135 | ||
136 | *** Variables renamed: | |
137 | ||
138 | The following %define variables | |
139 | ||
140 | api.push_pull | |
141 | lr.keep_unreachable_states | |
142 | ||
143 | have been renamed to | |
144 | ||
145 | api.push-pull | |
146 | lr.keep-unreachable-states | |
147 | ||
148 | The old names are now deprecated but will be maintained indefinitely | |
149 | for backward compatibility. | |
150 | ||
151 | *** Values no longer need to be quoted in the grammar file: | |
152 | ||
153 | If a %define value is an identifier, it no longer needs to be placed | |
154 | within quotations marks. For example, | |
155 | ||
156 | %define api.push-pull "push" | |
157 | ||
158 | can be rewritten as | |
159 | ||
160 | %define api.push-pull push | |
161 | ||
162 | *** Unrecognized variables are now errors not warnings. | |
163 | ||
164 | *** Multiple invocations for any variable is now an error not a warning. | |
165 | ||
166 | ** Unrecognized %code qualifiers are now errors not warnings. | |
167 | ||
168 | ** Character literals not of length one: | |
169 | ||
170 | Previously, Bison quietly converted all character literals to length | |
171 | one. For example, without warning, Bison interpreted the operators in | |
172 | the following grammar to be the same token: | |
173 | ||
174 | exp: exp '++' | |
175 | | exp '+' exp | |
176 | ; | |
177 | ||
178 | Bison now warns when a character literal is not of length one. In | |
179 | some future release, Bison will start reporting an error instead. | |
180 | ||
181 | ** Destructor calls fixed for lookaheads altered in semantic actions: | |
182 | ||
183 | Previously for deterministic parsers in C, if a user semantic action | |
184 | altered yychar, the parser in some cases used the old yychar value to | |
185 | determine which destructor to call for the lookahead upon a syntax | |
186 | error or upon parser return. This bug has been fixed. | |
187 | ||
188 | ** C++ parsers use YYRHSLOC: | |
189 | ||
190 | Similarly to the C parsers, the C++ parsers now define the YYRHSLOC | |
191 | macro and use it in the default YYLLOC_DEFAULT. You are encouraged | |
192 | to use it. If, for instance, your location structure has `first' | |
193 | and `last' members, instead of | |
194 | ||
195 | # define YYLLOC_DEFAULT(Current, Rhs, N) \ | |
196 | do \ | |
197 | if (N) \ | |
198 | { \ | |
199 | (Current).first = (Rhs)[1].location.first; \ | |
200 | (Current).last = (Rhs)[N].location.last; \ | |
201 | } \ | |
202 | else \ | |
203 | { \ | |
204 | (Current).first = (Current).last = (Rhs)[0].location.last; \ | |
205 | } \ | |
206 | while (false) | |
207 | ||
208 | use: | |
209 | ||
210 | # define YYLLOC_DEFAULT(Current, Rhs, N) \ | |
211 | do \ | |
212 | if (N) \ | |
213 | { \ | |
214 | (Current).first = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, 1).first; \ | |
215 | (Current).last = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, N).last; \ | |
216 | } \ | |
217 | else \ | |
218 | { \ | |
219 | (Current).first = (Current).last = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, 0).last; \ | |
220 | } \ | |
221 | while (false) | |
222 | ||
223 | ** YYLLOC_DEFAULT in C++: | |
224 | ||
225 | The default implementation of YYLLOC_DEFAULT used to be issued in | |
226 | the header file. It is now output in the implementation file, after | |
227 | the user %code sections so that its #ifndef guard does not try to | |
228 | override the user's YYLLOC_DEFAULT if provided. | |
229 | ||
230 | ** YYFAIL now produces warnings and Java parsers no longer implement it: | |
231 | ||
232 | YYFAIL has existed for many years as an undocumented feature of | |
233 | deterministic parsers in C generated by Bison. More recently, it was | |
234 | a documented feature of Bison's experimental Java parsers. As | |
235 | promised in Bison 2.4.2's NEWS entry, any appearance of YYFAIL in a | |
236 | semantic action now produces a deprecation warning, and Java parsers | |
237 | no longer implement YYFAIL at all. For further details, including a | |
238 | discussion of how to suppress C preprocessor warnings about YYFAIL | |
239 | being unused, see the Bison 2.4.2 NEWS entry. | |
240 | ||
241 | ** Temporary hack for adding a semicolon to the user action: | |
242 | ||
243 | Previously, Bison appended a semicolon to every user action for | |
244 | reductions when the output language defaulted to C (specifically, when | |
245 | neither %yacc, %language, %skeleton, or equivalent command-line | |
246 | options were specified). This allowed actions such as | |
247 | ||
248 | exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 }; | |
249 | ||
250 | instead of | |
251 | ||
252 | exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; }; | |
253 | ||
254 | As a first step in removing this misfeature, Bison now issues a | |
255 | warning when it appends a semicolon. Moreover, in cases where Bison | |
256 | cannot easily determine whether a semicolon is needed (for example, an | |
257 | action ending with a cpp directive or a braced compound initializer), | |
258 | it no longer appends one. Thus, the C compiler might now complain | |
259 | about a missing semicolon where it did not before. Future releases of | |
260 | Bison will cease to append semicolons entirely. | |
261 | ||
262 | ** Verbose syntax error message fixes: | |
263 | ||
264 | When %error-verbose or the obsolete `#define YYERROR_VERBOSE' is | |
265 | specified, syntax error messages produced by the generated parser | |
266 | include the unexpected token as well as a list of expected tokens. | |
267 | The effect of %nonassoc on these verbose messages has been corrected | |
268 | in two ways, but a more complete fix requires LAC, described above: | |
269 | ||
270 | *** When %nonassoc is used, there can exist parser states that accept no | |
271 | tokens, and so the parser does not always require a lookahead token | |
272 | in order to detect a syntax error. Because no unexpected token or | |
273 | expected tokens can then be reported, the verbose syntax error | |
274 | message described above is suppressed, and the parser instead | |
275 | reports the simpler message, `syntax error'. Previously, this | |
276 | suppression was sometimes erroneously triggered by %nonassoc when a | |
277 | lookahead was actually required. Now verbose messages are | |
278 | suppressed only when all previous lookaheads have already been | |
279 | shifted or discarded. | |
280 | ||
281 | *** Previously, the list of expected tokens erroneously included tokens | |
282 | that would actually induce a syntax error because conflicts for them | |
283 | were resolved with %nonassoc in the current parser state. Such | |
284 | tokens are now properly omitted from the list. | |
285 | ||
286 | *** Expected token lists are still often wrong due to state merging | |
287 | (from LALR or IELR) and default reductions, which can both add | |
288 | invalid tokens and subtract valid tokens. Canonical LR almost | |
289 | completely fixes this problem by eliminating state merging and | |
290 | default reductions. However, there is one minor problem left even | |
291 | when using canonical LR and even after the fixes above. That is, | |
292 | if the resolution of a conflict with %nonassoc appears in a later | |
293 | parser state than the one at which some syntax error is | |
294 | discovered, the conflicted token is still erroneously included in | |
295 | the expected token list. Bison's new LAC implementation, | |
296 | described above, eliminates this problem and the need for | |
297 | canonical LR. However, LAC is still experimental and is disabled | |
298 | by default. | |
299 | ||
300 | ** Java skeleton fixes: | |
301 | ||
302 | *** A location handling bug has been fixed. | |
303 | ||
304 | *** The top element of each of the value stack and location stack is now | |
305 | cleared when popped so that it can be garbage collected. | |
306 | ||
307 | *** Parser traces now print the top element of the stack. | |
308 | ||
309 | ** -W/--warnings fixes: | |
310 | ||
311 | *** Bison now properly recognizes the `no-' versions of categories: | |
312 | ||
313 | For example, given the following command line, Bison now enables all | |
314 | warnings except warnings for incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc: | |
315 | ||
316 | bison -Wall,no-yacc gram.y | |
317 | ||
318 | *** Bison now treats S/R and R/R conflicts like other warnings: | |
319 | ||
320 | Previously, conflict reports were independent of Bison's normal | |
321 | warning system. Now, Bison recognizes the warning categories | |
322 | `conflicts-sr' and `conflicts-rr'. This change has important | |
323 | consequences for the -W and --warnings command-line options. For | |
324 | example: | |
325 | ||
326 | bison -Wno-conflicts-sr gram.y # S/R conflicts not reported | |
327 | bison -Wno-conflicts-rr gram.y # R/R conflicts not reported | |
328 | bison -Wnone gram.y # no conflicts are reported | |
329 | bison -Werror gram.y # any conflict is an error | |
330 | ||
331 | However, as before, if the %expect or %expect-rr directive is | |
332 | specified, an unexpected number of conflicts is an error, and an | |
333 | expected number of conflicts is not reported, so -W and --warning | |
334 | then have no effect on the conflict report. | |
335 | ||
336 | *** The `none' category no longer disables a preceding `error': | |
337 | ||
338 | For example, for the following command line, Bison now reports | |
339 | errors instead of warnings for incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc: | |
340 | ||
341 | bison -Werror,none,yacc gram.y | |
342 | ||
343 | *** The `none' category now disables all Bison warnings: | |
344 | ||
345 | Previously, the `none' category disabled only Bison warnings for | |
346 | which there existed a specific -W/--warning category. However, | |
347 | given the following command line, Bison is now guaranteed to | |
348 | suppress all warnings: | |
349 | ||
350 | bison -Wnone gram.y | |
351 | ||
352 | ** Precedence directives can now assign token number 0: | |
353 | ||
354 | Since Bison 2.3b, which restored the ability of precedence | |
355 | directives to assign token numbers, doing so for token number 0 has | |
356 | produced an assertion failure. For example: | |
357 | ||
358 | %left END 0 | |
359 | ||
360 | This bug has been fixed. | |
361 | ||
362 | * Changes in version 2.4.3 (2010-08-05): | |
363 | ||
364 | ** Bison now obeys -Werror and --warnings=error for warnings about | |
365 | grammar rules that are useless in the parser due to conflicts. | |
366 | ||
367 | ** Problems with spawning M4 on at least FreeBSD 8 and FreeBSD 9 have | |
368 | been fixed. | |
369 | ||
370 | ** Failures in the test suite for GCC 4.5 have been fixed. | |
371 | ||
372 | ** Failures in the test suite for some versions of Sun Studio C++ have | |
373 | been fixed. | |
374 | ||
375 | ** Contrary to Bison 2.4.2's NEWS entry, it has been decided that | |
376 | warnings about undefined %prec identifiers will not be converted to | |
377 | errors in Bison 2.5. They will remain warnings, which should be | |
378 | sufficient for POSIX while avoiding backward compatibility issues. | |
379 | ||
380 | ** Minor documentation fixes. | |
381 | ||
382 | * Changes in version 2.4.2 (2010-03-20): | |
383 | ||
384 | ** Some portability problems that resulted in failures and livelocks | |
385 | in the test suite on some versions of at least Solaris, AIX, HP-UX, | |
386 | RHEL4, and Tru64 have been addressed. As a result, fatal Bison | |
387 | errors should no longer cause M4 to report a broken pipe on the | |
388 | affected platforms. | |
389 | ||
390 | ** `%prec IDENTIFIER' requires IDENTIFIER to be defined separately. | |
391 | ||
392 | POSIX specifies that an error be reported for any identifier that does | |
393 | not appear on the LHS of a grammar rule and that is not defined by | |
394 | %token, %left, %right, or %nonassoc. Bison 2.3b and later lost this | |
395 | error report for the case when an identifier appears only after a | |
396 | %prec directive. It is now restored. However, for backward | |
397 | compatibility with recent Bison releases, it is only a warning for | |
398 | now. In Bison 2.5 and later, it will return to being an error. | |
399 | [Between the 2.4.2 and 2.4.3 releases, it was decided that this | |
400 | warning will not be converted to an error in Bison 2.5.] | |
401 | ||
402 | ** Detection of GNU M4 1.4.6 or newer during configure is improved. | |
403 | ||
404 | ** Warnings from gcc's -Wundef option about undefined YYENABLE_NLS, | |
405 | YYLTYPE_IS_TRIVIAL, and __STRICT_ANSI__ in C/C++ parsers are now | |
406 | avoided. | |
407 | ||
408 | ** %code is now a permanent feature. | |
409 | ||
410 | A traditional Yacc prologue directive is written in the form: | |
411 | ||
412 | %{CODE%} | |
413 | ||
414 | To provide a more flexible alternative, Bison 2.3b introduced the | |
415 | %code directive with the following forms for C/C++: | |
416 | ||
417 | %code {CODE} | |
418 | %code requires {CODE} | |
419 | %code provides {CODE} | |
420 | %code top {CODE} | |
421 | ||
422 | These forms are now considered permanent features of Bison. See the | |
423 | %code entries in the section "Bison Declaration Summary" in the Bison | |
424 | manual for a summary of their functionality. See the section | |
425 | "Prologue Alternatives" for a detailed discussion including the | |
426 | advantages of %code over the traditional Yacc prologue directive. | |
427 | ||
428 | Bison's Java feature as a whole including its current usage of %code | |
429 | is still considered experimental. | |
430 | ||
431 | ** YYFAIL is deprecated and will eventually be removed. | |
432 | ||
433 | YYFAIL has existed for many years as an undocumented feature of | |
434 | deterministic parsers in C generated by Bison. Previously, it was | |
435 | documented for Bison's experimental Java parsers. YYFAIL is no longer | |
436 | documented for Java parsers and is formally deprecated in both cases. | |
437 | Users are strongly encouraged to migrate to YYERROR, which is | |
438 | specified by POSIX. | |
439 | ||
440 | Like YYERROR, you can invoke YYFAIL from a semantic action in order to | |
441 | induce a syntax error. The most obvious difference from YYERROR is | |
442 | that YYFAIL will automatically invoke yyerror to report the syntax | |
443 | error so that you don't have to. However, there are several other | |
444 | subtle differences between YYERROR and YYFAIL, and YYFAIL suffers from | |
445 | inherent flaws when %error-verbose or `#define YYERROR_VERBOSE' is | |
446 | used. For a more detailed discussion, see: | |
447 | ||
448 | http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bison-patches/2009-12/msg00024.html | |
449 | ||
450 | The upcoming Bison 2.5 will remove YYFAIL from Java parsers, but | |
451 | deterministic parsers in C will continue to implement it. However, | |
452 | because YYFAIL is already flawed, it seems futile to try to make new | |
453 | Bison features compatible with it. Thus, during parser generation, | |
454 | Bison 2.5 will produce a warning whenever it discovers YYFAIL in a | |
455 | rule action. In a later release, YYFAIL will be disabled for | |
456 | %error-verbose and `#define YYERROR_VERBOSE'. Eventually, YYFAIL will | |
457 | be removed altogether. | |
458 | ||
459 | There exists at least one case where Bison 2.5's YYFAIL warning will | |
460 | be a false positive. Some projects add phony uses of YYFAIL and other | |
461 | Bison-defined macros for the sole purpose of suppressing C | |
462 | preprocessor warnings (from GCC cpp's -Wunused-macros, for example). | |
463 | To avoid Bison's future warning, such YYFAIL uses can be moved to the | |
464 | epilogue (that is, after the second `%%') in the Bison input file. In | |
465 | this release (2.4.2), Bison already generates its own code to suppress | |
466 | C preprocessor warnings for YYFAIL, so projects can remove their own | |
467 | phony uses of YYFAIL if compatibility with Bison releases prior to | |
468 | 2.4.2 is not necessary. | |
469 | ||
470 | ** Internationalization. | |
471 | ||
472 | Fix a regression introduced in Bison 2.4: Under some circumstances, | |
473 | message translations were not installed although supported by the | |
474 | host system. | |
475 | ||
476 | * Changes in version 2.4.1 (2008-12-11): | |
477 | ||
478 | ** In the GLR defines file, unexpanded M4 macros in the yylval and yylloc | |
479 | declarations have been fixed. | |
480 | ||
481 | ** Temporary hack for adding a semicolon to the user action. | |
482 | ||
483 | Bison used to prepend a trailing semicolon at the end of the user | |
484 | action for reductions. This allowed actions such as | |
485 | ||
486 | exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 }; | |
487 | ||
488 | instead of | |
489 | ||
490 | exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; }; | |
491 | ||
492 | Some grammars still depend on this `feature'. Bison 2.4.1 restores | |
493 | the previous behavior in the case of C output (specifically, when | |
494 | neither %language or %skeleton or equivalent command-line options | |
495 | are used) to leave more time for grammars depending on the old | |
496 | behavior to be adjusted. Future releases of Bison will disable this | |
497 | feature. | |
498 | ||
499 | ** A few minor improvements to the Bison manual. | |
500 | ||
501 | * Changes in version 2.4 (2008-11-02): | |
502 | ||
503 | ** %language is an experimental feature. | |
504 | ||
505 | We first introduced this feature in test release 2.3b as a cleaner | |
506 | alternative to %skeleton. Since then, we have discussed the possibility of | |
507 | modifying its effect on Bison's output file names. Thus, in this release, | |
508 | we consider %language to be an experimental feature that will likely evolve | |
509 | in future releases. | |
510 | ||
511 | ** Forward compatibility with GNU M4 has been improved. | |
512 | ||
513 | ** Several bugs in the C++ skeleton and the experimental Java skeleton have been | |
514 | fixed. | |
515 | ||
516 | * Changes in version 2.3b (2008-05-27): | |
517 | ||
518 | ** The quotes around NAME that used to be required in the following directive | |
519 | are now deprecated: | |
520 | ||
521 | %define NAME "VALUE" | |
522 | ||
523 | ** The directive `%pure-parser' is now deprecated in favor of: | |
524 | ||
525 | %define api.pure | |
526 | ||
527 | which has the same effect except that Bison is more careful to warn about | |
528 | unreasonable usage in the latter case. | |
529 | ||
530 | ** Push Parsing | |
531 | ||
532 | Bison can now generate an LALR(1) parser in C with a push interface. That | |
533 | is, instead of invoking `yyparse', which pulls tokens from `yylex', you can | |
534 | push one token at a time to the parser using `yypush_parse', which will | |
535 | return to the caller after processing each token. By default, the push | |
536 | interface is disabled. Either of the following directives will enable it: | |
537 | ||
538 | %define api.push_pull "push" // Just push; does not require yylex. | |
539 | %define api.push_pull "both" // Push and pull; requires yylex. | |
540 | ||
541 | See the new section `A Push Parser' in the Bison manual for details. | |
542 | ||
543 | The current push parsing interface is experimental and may evolve. More user | |
544 | feedback will help to stabilize it. | |
545 | ||
546 | ** The -g and --graph options now output graphs in Graphviz DOT format, | |
547 | not VCG format. Like --graph, -g now also takes an optional FILE argument | |
548 | and thus cannot be bundled with other short options. | |
549 | ||
550 | ** Java | |
551 | ||
552 | Bison can now generate an LALR(1) parser in Java. The skeleton is | |
553 | `data/lalr1.java'. Consider using the new %language directive instead of | |
554 | %skeleton to select it. | |
555 | ||
556 | See the new section `Java Parsers' in the Bison manual for details. | |
557 | ||
558 | The current Java interface is experimental and may evolve. More user | |
559 | feedback will help to stabilize it. | |
560 | ||
561 | ** %language | |
562 | ||
563 | This new directive specifies the programming language of the generated | |
564 | parser, which can be C (the default), C++, or Java. Besides the skeleton | |
565 | that Bison uses, the directive affects the names of the generated files if | |
566 | the grammar file's name ends in ".y". | |
567 | ||
568 | ** XML Automaton Report | |
569 | ||
570 | Bison can now generate an XML report of the LALR(1) automaton using the new | |
571 | `--xml' option. The current XML schema is experimental and may evolve. More | |
572 | user feedback will help to stabilize it. | |
573 | ||
574 | ** The grammar file may now specify the name of the parser header file using | |
575 | %defines. For example: | |
576 | ||
577 | %defines "parser.h" | |
578 | ||
579 | ** When reporting useless rules, useless nonterminals, and unused terminals, | |
580 | Bison now employs the terms "useless in grammar" instead of "useless", | |
581 | "useless in parser" instead of "never reduced", and "unused in grammar" | |
582 | instead of "unused". | |
583 | ||
584 | ** Unreachable State Removal | |
585 | ||
586 | Previously, Bison sometimes generated parser tables containing unreachable | |
587 | states. A state can become unreachable during conflict resolution if Bison | |
588 | disables a shift action leading to it from a predecessor state. Bison now: | |
589 | ||
590 | 1. Removes unreachable states. | |
591 | ||
592 | 2. Does not report any conflicts that appeared in unreachable states. | |
593 | WARNING: As a result, you may need to update %expect and %expect-rr | |
594 | directives in existing grammar files. | |
595 | ||
596 | 3. For any rule used only in such states, Bison now reports the rule as | |
597 | "useless in parser due to conflicts". | |
598 | ||
599 | This feature can be disabled with the following directive: | |
600 | ||
601 | %define lr.keep_unreachable_states | |
602 | ||
603 | See the %define entry in the `Bison Declaration Summary' in the Bison manual | |
604 | for further discussion. | |
605 | ||
606 | ** Lookahead Set Correction in the `.output' Report | |
607 | ||
608 | When instructed to generate a `.output' file including lookahead sets | |
609 | (using `--report=lookahead', for example), Bison now prints each reduction's | |
610 | lookahead set only next to the associated state's one item that (1) is | |
611 | associated with the same rule as the reduction and (2) has its dot at the end | |
612 | of its RHS. Previously, Bison also erroneously printed the lookahead set | |
613 | next to all of the state's other items associated with the same rule. This | |
614 | bug affected only the `.output' file and not the generated parser source | |
615 | code. | |
616 | ||
617 | ** --report-file=FILE is a new option to override the default `.output' file | |
618 | name. | |
619 | ||
620 | ** The `=' that used to be required in the following directives is now | |
621 | deprecated: | |
622 | ||
623 | %file-prefix "parser" | |
624 | %name-prefix "c_" | |
625 | %output "parser.c" | |
626 | ||
627 | ** An Alternative to `%{...%}' -- `%code QUALIFIER {CODE}' | |
628 | ||
629 | Bison 2.3a provided a new set of directives as a more flexible alternative to | |
630 | the traditional Yacc prologue blocks. Those have now been consolidated into | |
631 | a single %code directive with an optional qualifier field, which identifies | |
632 | the purpose of the code and thus the location(s) where Bison should generate | |
633 | it: | |
634 | ||
635 | 1. `%code {CODE}' replaces `%after-header {CODE}' | |
636 | 2. `%code requires {CODE}' replaces `%start-header {CODE}' | |
637 | 3. `%code provides {CODE}' replaces `%end-header {CODE}' | |
638 | 4. `%code top {CODE}' replaces `%before-header {CODE}' | |
639 | ||
640 | See the %code entries in section `Bison Declaration Summary' in the Bison | |
641 | manual for a summary of the new functionality. See the new section `Prologue | |
642 | Alternatives' for a detailed discussion including the advantages of %code | |
643 | over the traditional Yacc prologues. | |
644 | ||
645 | The prologue alternatives are experimental. More user feedback will help to | |
646 | determine whether they should become permanent features. | |
647 | ||
648 | ** Revised warning: unset or unused mid-rule values | |
649 | ||
650 | Since Bison 2.2, Bison has warned about mid-rule values that are set but not | |
651 | used within any of the actions of the parent rule. For example, Bison warns | |
652 | about unused $2 in: | |
653 | ||
654 | exp: '1' { $$ = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $1 + $4; }; | |
655 | ||
656 | Now, Bison also warns about mid-rule values that are used but not set. For | |
657 | example, Bison warns about unset $$ in the mid-rule action in: | |
658 | ||
659 | exp: '1' { $1 = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $2 + $4; }; | |
660 | ||
661 | However, Bison now disables both of these warnings by default since they | |
662 | sometimes prove to be false alarms in existing grammars employing the Yacc | |
663 | constructs $0 or $-N (where N is some positive integer). | |
664 | ||
665 | To enable these warnings, specify the option `--warnings=midrule-values' or | |
666 | `-W', which is a synonym for `--warnings=all'. | |
667 | ||
668 | ** Default %destructor or %printer with `<*>' or `<>' | |
669 | ||
670 | Bison now recognizes two separate kinds of default %destructor's and | |
671 | %printer's: | |
672 | ||
673 | 1. Place `<*>' in a %destructor/%printer symbol list to define a default | |
674 | %destructor/%printer for all grammar symbols for which you have formally | |
675 | declared semantic type tags. | |
676 | ||
677 | 2. Place `<>' in a %destructor/%printer symbol list to define a default | |
678 | %destructor/%printer for all grammar symbols without declared semantic | |
679 | type tags. | |
680 | ||
681 | Bison no longer supports the `%symbol-default' notation from Bison 2.3a. | |
682 | `<*>' and `<>' combined achieve the same effect with one exception: Bison no | |
683 | longer applies any %destructor to a mid-rule value if that mid-rule value is | |
684 | not actually ever referenced using either $$ or $n in a semantic action. | |
685 | ||
686 | The default %destructor's and %printer's are experimental. More user | |
687 | feedback will help to determine whether they should become permanent | |
688 | features. | |
689 | ||
690 | See the section `Freeing Discarded Symbols' in the Bison manual for further | |
691 | details. | |
692 | ||
693 | ** %left, %right, and %nonassoc can now declare token numbers. This is required | |
694 | by POSIX. However, see the end of section `Operator Precedence' in the Bison | |
695 | manual for a caveat concerning the treatment of literal strings. | |
696 | ||
697 | ** The nonfunctional --no-parser, -n, and %no-parser options have been | |
698 | completely removed from Bison. | |
699 | ||
700 | * Changes in version 2.3a, 2006-09-13: | |
701 | ||
702 | ** Instead of %union, you can define and use your own union type | |
703 | YYSTYPE if your grammar contains at least one <type> tag. | |
704 | Your YYSTYPE need not be a macro; it can be a typedef. | |
705 | This change is for compatibility with other Yacc implementations, | |
706 | and is required by POSIX. | |
707 | ||
708 | ** Locations columns and lines start at 1. | |
709 | In accordance with the GNU Coding Standards and Emacs. | |
710 | ||
711 | ** You may now declare per-type and default %destructor's and %printer's: | |
712 | ||
713 | For example: | |
714 | ||
715 | %union { char *string; } | |
716 | %token <string> STRING1 | |
717 | %token <string> STRING2 | |
718 | %type <string> string1 | |
719 | %type <string> string2 | |
720 | %union { char character; } | |
721 | %token <character> CHR | |
722 | %type <character> chr | |
723 | %destructor { free ($$); } %symbol-default | |
724 | %destructor { free ($$); printf ("%d", @$.first_line); } STRING1 string1 | |
725 | %destructor { } <character> | |
726 | ||
727 | guarantees that, when the parser discards any user-defined symbol that has a | |
728 | semantic type tag other than `<character>', it passes its semantic value to | |
729 | `free'. However, when the parser discards a `STRING1' or a `string1', it | |
730 | also prints its line number to `stdout'. It performs only the second | |
731 | `%destructor' in this case, so it invokes `free' only once. | |
732 | ||
733 | [Although we failed to mention this here in the 2.3a release, the default | |
734 | %destructor's and %printer's were experimental, and they were rewritten in | |
735 | future versions.] | |
736 | ||
737 | ** Except for LALR(1) parsers in C with POSIX Yacc emulation enabled (with `-y', | |
738 | `--yacc', or `%yacc'), Bison no longer generates #define statements for | |
739 | associating token numbers with token names. Removing the #define statements | |
740 | helps to sanitize the global namespace during preprocessing, but POSIX Yacc | |
741 | requires them. Bison still generates an enum for token names in all cases. | |
742 | ||
743 | ** Handling of traditional Yacc prologue blocks is now more consistent but | |
744 | potentially incompatible with previous releases of Bison. | |
745 | ||
746 | As before, you declare prologue blocks in your grammar file with the | |
747 | `%{ ... %}' syntax. To generate the pre-prologue, Bison concatenates all | |
748 | prologue blocks that you've declared before the first %union. To generate | |
749 | the post-prologue, Bison concatenates all prologue blocks that you've | |
750 | declared after the first %union. | |
751 | ||
752 | Previous releases of Bison inserted the pre-prologue into both the header | |
753 | file and the code file in all cases except for LALR(1) parsers in C. In the | |
754 | latter case, Bison inserted it only into the code file. For parsers in C++, | |
755 | the point of insertion was before any token definitions (which associate | |
756 | token numbers with names). For parsers in C, the point of insertion was | |
757 | after the token definitions. | |
758 | ||
759 | Now, Bison never inserts the pre-prologue into the header file. In the code | |
760 | file, it always inserts it before the token definitions. | |
761 | ||
762 | ** Bison now provides a more flexible alternative to the traditional Yacc | |
763 | prologue blocks: %before-header, %start-header, %end-header, and | |
764 | %after-header. | |
765 | ||
766 | For example, the following declaration order in the grammar file reflects the | |
767 | order in which Bison will output these code blocks. However, you are free to | |
768 | declare these code blocks in your grammar file in whatever order is most | |
769 | convenient for you: | |
770 | ||
771 | %before-header { | |
772 | /* Bison treats this block like a pre-prologue block: it inserts it into | |
773 | * the code file before the contents of the header file. It does *not* | |
774 | * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to put | |
775 | * #include's that you want at the top of your code file. A common | |
776 | * example is `#include "system.h"'. */ | |
777 | } | |
778 | %start-header { | |
779 | /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file. | |
780 | * In both files, the point of insertion is before any Bison-generated | |
781 | * token, semantic type, location type, and class definitions. This is a | |
782 | * good place to define %union dependencies, for example. */ | |
783 | } | |
784 | %union { | |
785 | /* Unlike the traditional Yacc prologue blocks, the output order for the | |
786 | * new %*-header blocks is not affected by their declaration position | |
787 | * relative to any %union in the grammar file. */ | |
788 | } | |
789 | %end-header { | |
790 | /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file. | |
791 | * In both files, the point of insertion is after the Bison-generated | |
792 | * definitions. This is a good place to declare or define public | |
793 | * functions or data structures that depend on the Bison-generated | |
794 | * definitions. */ | |
795 | } | |
796 | %after-header { | |
797 | /* Bison treats this block like a post-prologue block: it inserts it into | |
798 | * the code file after the contents of the header file. It does *not* | |
799 | * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to declare or | |
800 | * define internal functions or data structures that depend on the | |
801 | * Bison-generated definitions. */ | |
802 | } | |
803 | ||
804 | If you have multiple occurrences of any one of the above declarations, Bison | |
805 | will concatenate the contents in declaration order. | |
806 | ||
807 | [Although we failed to mention this here in the 2.3a release, the prologue | |
808 | alternatives were experimental, and they were rewritten in future versions.] | |
809 | ||
810 | ** The option `--report=look-ahead' has been changed to `--report=lookahead'. | |
811 | The old spelling still works, but is not documented and may be removed | |
812 | in a future release. | |
813 | ||
814 | * Changes in version 2.3, 2006-06-05: | |
815 | ||
816 | ** GLR grammars should now use `YYRECOVERING ()' instead of `YYRECOVERING', | |
817 | for compatibility with LALR(1) grammars. | |
818 | ||
819 | ** It is now documented that any definition of YYSTYPE or YYLTYPE should | |
820 | be to a type name that does not contain parentheses or brackets. | |
821 | ||
822 | * Changes in version 2.2, 2006-05-19: | |
823 | ||
824 | ** The distribution terms for all Bison-generated parsers now permit | |
825 | using the parsers in nonfree programs. Previously, this permission | |
826 | was granted only for Bison-generated LALR(1) parsers in C. | |
827 | ||
828 | ** %name-prefix changes the namespace name in C++ outputs. | |
829 | ||
830 | ** The C++ parsers export their token_type. | |
831 | ||
832 | ** Bison now allows multiple %union declarations, and concatenates | |
833 | their contents together. | |
834 | ||
835 | ** New warning: unused values | |
836 | Right-hand side symbols whose values are not used are reported, | |
837 | if the symbols have destructors. For instance: | |
838 | ||
839 | exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; } | |
840 | | exp "+" exp | |
841 | ; | |
842 | ||
843 | will trigger a warning about $$ and $5 in the first rule, and $3 in | |
844 | the second ($1 is copied to $$ by the default rule). This example | |
845 | most likely contains three errors, and could be rewritten as: | |
846 | ||
847 | exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp | |
848 | { $$ = $1 ? $3 : $5; free ($1 ? $5 : $3); free ($1); } | |
849 | | exp "+" exp | |
850 | { $$ = $1 ? $1 : $3; if ($1) free ($3); } | |
851 | ; | |
852 | ||
853 | However, if the original actions were really intended, memory leaks | |
854 | and all, the warnings can be suppressed by letting Bison believe the | |
855 | values are used, e.g.: | |
856 | ||
857 | exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; (void) ($$, $5); } | |
858 | | exp "+" exp { $$ = $1; (void) $3; } | |
859 | ; | |
860 | ||
861 | If there are mid-rule actions, the warning is issued if no action | |
862 | uses it. The following triggers no warning: $1 and $3 are used. | |
863 | ||
864 | exp: exp { push ($1); } '+' exp { push ($3); sum (); }; | |
865 | ||
866 | The warning is intended to help catching lost values and memory leaks. | |
867 | If a value is ignored, its associated memory typically is not reclaimed. | |
868 | ||
869 | ** %destructor vs. YYABORT, YYACCEPT, and YYERROR. | |
870 | Destructors are now called when user code invokes YYABORT, YYACCEPT, | |
871 | and YYERROR, for all objects on the stack, other than objects | |
872 | corresponding to the right-hand side of the current rule. | |
873 | ||
874 | ** %expect, %expect-rr | |
875 | Incorrect numbers of expected conflicts are now actual errors, | |
876 | instead of warnings. | |
877 | ||
878 | ** GLR, YACC parsers. | |
879 | The %parse-params are available in the destructors (and the | |
880 | experimental printers) as per the documentation. | |
881 | ||
882 | ** Bison now warns if it finds a stray `$' or `@' in an action. | |
883 | ||
884 | ** %require "VERSION" | |
885 | This specifies that the grammar file depends on features implemented | |
886 | in Bison version VERSION or higher. | |
887 | ||
888 | ** lalr1.cc: The token and value types are now class members. | |
889 | The tokens were defined as free form enums and cpp macros. YYSTYPE | |
890 | was defined as a free form union. They are now class members: | |
891 | tokens are enumerations of the `yy::parser::token' struct, and the | |
892 | semantic values have the `yy::parser::semantic_type' type. | |
893 | ||
894 | If you do not want or can update to this scheme, the directive | |
895 | `%define "global_tokens_and_yystype" "1"' triggers the global | |
896 | definition of tokens and YYSTYPE. This change is suitable both | |
897 | for previous releases of Bison, and this one. | |
898 | ||
899 | If you wish to update, then make sure older version of Bison will | |
900 | fail using `%require "2.2"'. | |
901 | ||
902 | ** DJGPP support added. | |
903 | \f | |
904 | * Changes in version 2.1, 2005-09-16: | |
905 | ||
906 | ** The C++ lalr1.cc skeleton supports %lex-param. | |
907 | ||
908 | ** Bison-generated parsers now support the translation of diagnostics like | |
909 | "syntax error" into languages other than English. The default | |
910 | language is still English. For details, please see the new | |
911 | Internationalization section of the Bison manual. Software | |
912 | distributors should also see the new PACKAGING file. Thanks to | |
913 | Bruno Haible for this new feature. | |
914 | ||
915 | ** Wording in the Bison-generated parsers has been changed slightly to | |
916 | simplify translation. In particular, the message "memory exhausted" | |
917 | has replaced "parser stack overflow", as the old message was not | |
918 | always accurate for modern Bison-generated parsers. | |
919 | ||
920 | ** Destructors are now called when the parser aborts, for all symbols left | |
921 | behind on the stack. Also, the start symbol is now destroyed after a | |
922 | successful parse. In both cases, the behavior was formerly inconsistent. | |
923 | ||
924 | ** When generating verbose diagnostics, Bison-generated parsers no longer | |
925 | quote the literal strings associated with tokens. For example, for | |
926 | a syntax error associated with '%token NUM "number"' they might | |
927 | print 'syntax error, unexpected number' instead of 'syntax error, | |
928 | unexpected "number"'. | |
929 | \f | |
930 | * Changes in version 2.0, 2004-12-25: | |
931 | ||
932 | ** Possibly-incompatible changes | |
933 | ||
934 | - Bison-generated parsers no longer default to using the alloca function | |
935 | (when available) to extend the parser stack, due to widespread | |
936 | problems in unchecked stack-overflow detection. You can "#define | |
937 | YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA 1" to require the use of alloca, but please read | |
938 | the manual to determine safe values for YYMAXDEPTH in that case. | |
939 | ||
940 | - Error token location. | |
941 | During error recovery, the location of the syntax error is updated | |
942 | to cover the whole sequence covered by the error token: it includes | |
943 | the shifted symbols thrown away during the first part of the error | |
944 | recovery, and the lookahead rejected during the second part. | |
945 | ||
946 | - Semicolon changes: | |
947 | . Stray semicolons are no longer allowed at the start of a grammar. | |
948 | . Semicolons are now required after in-grammar declarations. | |
949 | ||
950 | - Unescaped newlines are no longer allowed in character constants or | |
951 | string literals. They were never portable, and GCC 3.4.0 has | |
952 | dropped support for them. Better diagnostics are now generated if | |
953 | forget a closing quote. | |
954 | ||
955 | - NUL bytes are no longer allowed in Bison string literals, unfortunately. | |
956 | ||
957 | ** New features | |
958 | ||
959 | - GLR grammars now support locations. | |
960 | ||
961 | - New directive: %initial-action. | |
962 | This directive allows the user to run arbitrary code (including | |
963 | initializing @$) from yyparse before parsing starts. | |
964 | ||
965 | - A new directive "%expect-rr N" specifies the expected number of | |
966 | reduce/reduce conflicts in GLR parsers. | |
967 | ||
968 | - %token numbers can now be hexadecimal integers, e.g., `%token FOO 0x12d'. | |
969 | This is a GNU extension. | |
970 | ||
971 | - The option `--report=lookahead' was changed to `--report=look-ahead'. | |
972 | [However, this was changed back after 2.3.] | |
973 | ||
974 | - Experimental %destructor support has been added to lalr1.cc. | |
975 | ||
976 | - New configure option --disable-yacc, to disable installation of the | |
977 | yacc command and -ly library introduced in 1.875 for POSIX conformance. | |
978 | ||
979 | ** Bug fixes | |
980 | ||
981 | - For now, %expect-count violations are now just warnings, not errors. | |
982 | This is for compatibility with Bison 1.75 and earlier (when there are | |
983 | reduce/reduce conflicts) and with Bison 1.30 and earlier (when there | |
984 | are too many or too few shift/reduce conflicts). However, in future | |
985 | versions of Bison we plan to improve the %expect machinery so that | |
986 | these violations will become errors again. | |
987 | ||
988 | - Within Bison itself, numbers (e.g., goto numbers) are no longer | |
989 | arbitrarily limited to 16-bit counts. | |
990 | ||
991 | - Semicolons are now allowed before "|" in grammar rules, as POSIX requires. | |
992 | \f | |
993 | * Changes in version 1.875, 2003-01-01: | |
994 | ||
995 | ** The documentation license has been upgraded to version 1.2 | |
996 | of the GNU Free Documentation License. | |
997 | ||
998 | ** syntax error processing | |
999 | ||
1000 | - In Yacc-style parsers YYLLOC_DEFAULT is now used to compute error | |
1001 | locations too. This fixes bugs in error-location computation. | |
1002 | ||
1003 | - %destructor | |
1004 | It is now possible to reclaim the memory associated to symbols | |
1005 | discarded during error recovery. This feature is still experimental. | |
1006 | ||
1007 | - %error-verbose | |
1008 | This new directive is preferred over YYERROR_VERBOSE. | |
1009 | ||
1010 | - #defining yyerror to steal internal variables is discouraged. | |
1011 | It is not guaranteed to work forever. | |
1012 | ||
1013 | ** POSIX conformance | |
1014 | ||
1015 | - Semicolons are once again optional at the end of grammar rules. | |
1016 | This reverts to the behavior of Bison 1.33 and earlier, and improves | |
1017 | compatibility with Yacc. | |
1018 | ||
1019 | - `parse error' -> `syntax error' | |
1020 | Bison now uniformly uses the term `syntax error'; formerly, the code | |
1021 | and manual sometimes used the term `parse error' instead. POSIX | |
1022 | requires `syntax error' in diagnostics, and it was thought better to | |
1023 | be consistent. | |
1024 | ||
1025 | - The documentation now emphasizes that yylex and yyerror must be | |
1026 | declared before use. C99 requires this. | |
1027 | ||
1028 | - Bison now parses C99 lexical constructs like UCNs and | |
1029 | backslash-newline within C escape sequences, as POSIX 1003.1-2001 requires. | |
1030 | ||
1031 | - File names are properly escaped in C output. E.g., foo\bar.y is | |
1032 | output as "foo\\bar.y". | |
1033 | ||
1034 | - Yacc command and library now available | |
1035 | The Bison distribution now installs a `yacc' command, as POSIX requires. | |
1036 | Also, Bison now installs a small library liby.a containing | |
1037 | implementations of Yacc-compatible yyerror and main functions. | |
1038 | This library is normally not useful, but POSIX requires it. | |
1039 | ||
1040 | - Type clashes now generate warnings, not errors. | |
1041 | ||
1042 | - If the user does not define YYSTYPE as a macro, Bison now declares it | |
1043 | using typedef instead of defining it as a macro. | |
1044 | For consistency, YYLTYPE is also declared instead of defined. | |
1045 | ||
1046 | ** Other compatibility issues | |
1047 | ||
1048 | - %union directives can now have a tag before the `{', e.g., the | |
1049 | directive `%union foo {...}' now generates the C code | |
1050 | `typedef union foo { ... } YYSTYPE;'; this is for Yacc compatibility. | |
1051 | The default union tag is `YYSTYPE', for compatibility with Solaris 9 Yacc. | |
1052 | For consistency, YYLTYPE's struct tag is now `YYLTYPE' not `yyltype'. | |
1053 | This is for compatibility with both Yacc and Bison 1.35. | |
1054 | ||
1055 | - `;' is output before the terminating `}' of an action, for | |
1056 | compatibility with Bison 1.35. | |
1057 | ||
1058 | - Bison now uses a Yacc-style format for conflict reports, e.g., | |
1059 | `conflicts: 2 shift/reduce, 1 reduce/reduce'. | |
1060 | ||
1061 | - `yystype' and `yyltype' are now obsolescent macros instead of being | |
1062 | typedefs or tags; they are no longer documented and are planned to be | |
1063 | withdrawn in a future release. | |
1064 | ||
1065 | ** GLR parser notes | |
1066 | ||
1067 | - GLR and inline | |
1068 | Users of Bison have to decide how they handle the portability of the | |
1069 | C keyword `inline'. | |
1070 | ||
1071 | - `parsing stack overflow...' -> `parser stack overflow' | |
1072 | GLR parsers now report `parser stack overflow' as per the Bison manual. | |
1073 | ||
1074 | ** Bison now warns if it detects conflicting outputs to the same file, | |
1075 | e.g., it generates a warning for `bison -d -o foo.h foo.y' since | |
1076 | that command outputs both code and header to foo.h. | |
1077 | ||
1078 | ** #line in output files | |
1079 | - --no-line works properly. | |
1080 | ||
1081 | ** Bison can no longer be built by a K&R C compiler; it requires C89 or | |
1082 | later to be built. This change originally took place a few versions | |
1083 | ago, but nobody noticed until we recently asked someone to try | |
1084 | building Bison with a K&R C compiler. | |
1085 | \f | |
1086 | * Changes in version 1.75, 2002-10-14: | |
1087 | ||
1088 | ** Bison should now work on 64-bit hosts. | |
1089 | ||
1090 | ** Indonesian translation thanks to Tedi Heriyanto. | |
1091 | ||
1092 | ** GLR parsers | |
1093 | Fix spurious parse errors. | |
1094 | ||
1095 | ** Pure parsers | |
1096 | Some people redefine yyerror to steal yyparse' private variables. | |
1097 | Reenable this trick until an official feature replaces it. | |
1098 | ||
1099 | ** Type Clashes | |
1100 | In agreement with POSIX and with other Yaccs, leaving a default | |
1101 | action is valid when $$ is untyped, and $1 typed: | |
1102 | ||
1103 | untyped: ... typed; | |
1104 | ||
1105 | but the converse remains an error: | |
1106 | ||
1107 | typed: ... untyped; | |
1108 | ||
1109 | ** Values of mid-rule actions | |
1110 | The following code: | |
1111 | ||
1112 | foo: { ... } { $$ = $1; } ... | |
1113 | ||
1114 | was incorrectly rejected: $1 is defined in the second mid-rule | |
1115 | action, and is equal to the $$ of the first mid-rule action. | |
1116 | \f | |
1117 | * Changes in version 1.50, 2002-10-04: | |
1118 | ||
1119 | ** GLR parsing | |
1120 | The declaration | |
1121 | %glr-parser | |
1122 | causes Bison to produce a Generalized LR (GLR) parser, capable of handling | |
1123 | almost any context-free grammar, ambiguous or not. The new declarations | |
1124 | %dprec and %merge on grammar rules allow parse-time resolution of | |
1125 | ambiguities. Contributed by Paul Hilfinger. | |
1126 | ||
1127 | Unfortunately Bison 1.50 does not work properly on 64-bit hosts | |
1128 | like the Alpha, so please stick to 32-bit hosts for now. | |
1129 | ||
1130 | ** Output Directory | |
1131 | When not in Yacc compatibility mode, when the output file was not | |
1132 | specified, running `bison foo/bar.y' created `foo/bar.c'. It | |
1133 | now creates `bar.c'. | |
1134 | ||
1135 | ** Undefined token | |
1136 | The undefined token was systematically mapped to 2 which prevented | |
1137 | the use of 2 by the user. This is no longer the case. | |
1138 | ||
1139 | ** Unknown token numbers | |
1140 | If yylex returned an out of range value, yyparse could die. This is | |
1141 | no longer the case. | |
1142 | ||
1143 | ** Error token | |
1144 | According to POSIX, the error token must be 256. | |
1145 | Bison extends this requirement by making it a preference: *if* the | |
1146 | user specified that one of her tokens is numbered 256, then error | |
1147 | will be mapped onto another number. | |
1148 | ||
1149 | ** Verbose error messages | |
1150 | They no longer report `..., expecting error or...' for states where | |
1151 | error recovery is possible. | |
1152 | ||
1153 | ** End token | |
1154 | Defaults to `$end' instead of `$'. | |
1155 | ||
1156 | ** Error recovery now conforms to documentation and to POSIX | |
1157 | When a Bison-generated parser encounters a syntax error, it now pops | |
1158 | the stack until it finds a state that allows shifting the error | |
1159 | token. Formerly, it popped the stack until it found a state that | |
1160 | allowed some non-error action other than a default reduction on the | |
1161 | error token. The new behavior has long been the documented behavior, | |
1162 | and has long been required by POSIX. For more details, please see | |
1163 | Paul Eggert, "Reductions during Bison error handling" (2002-05-20) | |
1164 | <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-bison/2002-05/msg00038.html>. | |
1165 | ||
1166 | ** Traces | |
1167 | Popped tokens and nonterminals are now reported. | |
1168 | ||
1169 | ** Larger grammars | |
1170 | Larger grammars are now supported (larger token numbers, larger grammar | |
1171 | size (= sum of the LHS and RHS lengths), larger LALR tables). | |
1172 | Formerly, many of these numbers ran afoul of 16-bit limits; | |
1173 | now these limits are 32 bits on most hosts. | |
1174 | ||
1175 | ** Explicit initial rule | |
1176 | Bison used to play hacks with the initial rule, which the user does | |
1177 | not write. It is now explicit, and visible in the reports and | |
1178 | graphs as rule 0. | |
1179 | ||
1180 | ** Useless rules | |
1181 | Before, Bison reported the useless rules, but, although not used, | |
1182 | included them in the parsers. They are now actually removed. | |
1183 | ||
1184 | ** Useless rules, useless nonterminals | |
1185 | They are now reported, as a warning, with their locations. | |
1186 | ||
1187 | ** Rules never reduced | |
1188 | Rules that can never be reduced because of conflicts are now | |
1189 | reported. | |
1190 | ||
1191 | ** Incorrect `Token not used' | |
1192 | On a grammar such as | |
1193 | ||
1194 | %token useless useful | |
1195 | %% | |
1196 | exp: '0' %prec useful; | |
1197 | ||
1198 | where a token was used to set the precedence of the last rule, | |
1199 | bison reported both `useful' and `useless' as useless tokens. | |
1200 | ||
1201 | ** Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31 | |
1202 | as they caused too many portability hassles. | |
1203 | ||
1204 | ** Default locations | |
1205 | By an accident of design, the default computation of @$ was | |
1206 | performed after another default computation was performed: @$ = @1. | |
1207 | The latter is now removed: YYLLOC_DEFAULT is fully responsible of | |
1208 | the computation of @$. | |
1209 | ||
1210 | ** Token end-of-file | |
1211 | The token end of file may be specified by the user, in which case, | |
1212 | the user symbol is used in the reports, the graphs, and the verbose | |
1213 | error messages instead of `$end', which remains being the default. | |
1214 | For instance | |
1215 | %token MYEOF 0 | |
1216 | or | |
1217 | %token MYEOF 0 "end of file" | |
1218 | ||
1219 | ** Semantic parser | |
1220 | This old option, which has been broken for ages, is removed. | |
1221 | ||
1222 | ** New translations | |
1223 | Brazilian Portuguese, thanks to Alexandre Folle de Menezes. | |
1224 | Croatian, thanks to Denis Lackovic. | |
1225 | ||
1226 | ** Incorrect token definitions | |
1227 | When given `%token 'a' "A"', Bison used to output `#define 'a' 65'. | |
1228 | ||
1229 | ** Token definitions as enums | |
1230 | Tokens are output both as the traditional #define's, and, provided | |
1231 | the compiler supports ANSI C or is a C++ compiler, as enums. | |
1232 | This lets debuggers display names instead of integers. | |
1233 | ||
1234 | ** Reports | |
1235 | In addition to --verbose, bison supports --report=THINGS, which | |
1236 | produces additional information: | |
1237 | - itemset | |
1238 | complete the core item sets with their closure | |
1239 | - lookahead [changed to `look-ahead' in 1.875e through 2.3, but changed back] | |
1240 | explicitly associate lookahead tokens to items | |
1241 | - solved | |
1242 | describe shift/reduce conflicts solving. | |
1243 | Bison used to systematically output this information on top of | |
1244 | the report. Solved conflicts are now attached to their states. | |
1245 | ||
1246 | ** Type clashes | |
1247 | Previous versions don't complain when there is a type clash on | |
1248 | the default action if the rule has a mid-rule action, such as in: | |
1249 | ||
1250 | %type <foo> bar | |
1251 | %% | |
1252 | bar: '0' {} '0'; | |
1253 | ||
1254 | This is fixed. | |
1255 | ||
1256 | ** GNU M4 is now required when using Bison. | |
1257 | \f | |
1258 | * Changes in version 1.35, 2002-03-25: | |
1259 | ||
1260 | ** C Skeleton | |
1261 | Some projects use Bison's C parser with C++ compilers, and define | |
1262 | YYSTYPE as a class. The recent adjustment of C parsers for data | |
1263 | alignment and 64 bit architectures made this impossible. | |
1264 | ||
1265 | Because for the time being no real solution for C++ parser | |
1266 | generation exists, kludges were implemented in the parser to | |
1267 | maintain this use. In the future, when Bison has C++ parsers, this | |
1268 | kludge will be disabled. | |
1269 | ||
1270 | This kludge also addresses some C++ problems when the stack was | |
1271 | extended. | |
1272 | \f | |
1273 | * Changes in version 1.34, 2002-03-12: | |
1274 | ||
1275 | ** File name clashes are detected | |
1276 | $ bison foo.y -d -o foo.x | |
1277 | fatal error: header and parser would both be named `foo.x' | |
1278 | ||
1279 | ** A missing `;' at the end of a rule triggers a warning | |
1280 | In accordance with POSIX, and in agreement with other | |
1281 | Yacc implementations, Bison will mandate this semicolon in the near | |
1282 | future. This eases the implementation of a Bison parser of Bison | |
1283 | grammars by making this grammar LALR(1) instead of LR(2). To | |
1284 | facilitate the transition, this release introduces a warning. | |
1285 | ||
1286 | ** Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31, as they caused too | |
1287 | many portability hassles. | |
1288 | ||
1289 | ** DJGPP support added. | |
1290 | ||
1291 | ** Fix test suite portability problems. | |
1292 | \f | |
1293 | * Changes in version 1.33, 2002-02-07: | |
1294 | ||
1295 | ** Fix C++ issues | |
1296 | Groff could not be compiled for the definition of size_t was lacking | |
1297 | under some conditions. | |
1298 | ||
1299 | ** Catch invalid @n | |
1300 | As is done with $n. | |
1301 | \f | |
1302 | * Changes in version 1.32, 2002-01-23: | |
1303 | ||
1304 | ** Fix Yacc output file names | |
1305 | ||
1306 | ** Portability fixes | |
1307 | ||
1308 | ** Italian, Dutch translations | |
1309 | \f | |
1310 | * Changes in version 1.31, 2002-01-14: | |
1311 | ||
1312 | ** Many Bug Fixes | |
1313 | ||
1314 | ** GNU Gettext and %expect | |
1315 | GNU Gettext asserts 10 s/r conflicts, but there are 7. Now that | |
1316 | Bison dies on incorrect %expectations, we fear there will be | |
1317 | too many bug reports for Gettext, so _for the time being_, %expect | |
1318 | does not trigger an error when the input file is named `plural.y'. | |
1319 | ||
1320 | ** Use of alloca in parsers | |
1321 | If YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA is defined to 0, then the parsers will use | |
1322 | malloc exclusively. Since 1.29, but was not NEWS'ed. | |
1323 | ||
1324 | alloca is used only when compiled with GCC, to avoid portability | |
1325 | problems as on AIX. | |
1326 | ||
1327 | ** yyparse now returns 2 if memory is exhausted; formerly it dumped core. | |
1328 | ||
1329 | ** When the generated parser lacks debugging code, YYDEBUG is now 0 | |
1330 | (as POSIX requires) instead of being undefined. | |
1331 | ||
1332 | ** User Actions | |
1333 | Bison has always permitted actions such as { $$ = $1 }: it adds the | |
1334 | ending semicolon. Now if in Yacc compatibility mode, the semicolon | |
1335 | is no longer output: one has to write { $$ = $1; }. | |
1336 | ||
1337 | ** Better C++ compliance | |
1338 | The output parsers try to respect C++ namespaces. | |
1339 | [This turned out to be a failed experiment, and it was reverted later.] | |
1340 | ||
1341 | ** Reduced Grammars | |
1342 | Fixed bugs when reporting useless nonterminals. | |
1343 | ||
1344 | ** 64 bit hosts | |
1345 | The parsers work properly on 64 bit hosts. | |
1346 | ||
1347 | ** Error messages | |
1348 | Some calls to strerror resulted in scrambled or missing error messages. | |
1349 | ||
1350 | ** %expect | |
1351 | When the number of shift/reduce conflicts is correct, don't issue | |
1352 | any warning. | |
1353 | ||
1354 | ** The verbose report includes the rule line numbers. | |
1355 | ||
1356 | ** Rule line numbers are fixed in traces. | |
1357 | ||
1358 | ** Swedish translation | |
1359 | ||
1360 | ** Parse errors | |
1361 | Verbose parse error messages from the parsers are better looking. | |
1362 | Before: parse error: unexpected `'/'', expecting `"number"' or `'-'' or `'('' | |
1363 | Now: parse error: unexpected '/', expecting "number" or '-' or '(' | |
1364 | ||
1365 | ** Fixed parser memory leaks. | |
1366 | When the generated parser was using malloc to extend its stacks, the | |
1367 | previous allocations were not freed. | |
1368 | ||
1369 | ** Fixed verbose output file. | |
1370 | Some newlines were missing. | |
1371 | Some conflicts in state descriptions were missing. | |
1372 | ||
1373 | ** Fixed conflict report. | |
1374 | Option -v was needed to get the result. | |
1375 | ||
1376 | ** %expect | |
1377 | Was not used. | |
1378 | Mismatches are errors, not warnings. | |
1379 | ||
1380 | ** Fixed incorrect processing of some invalid input. | |
1381 | ||
1382 | ** Fixed CPP guards: 9foo.h uses BISON_9FOO_H instead of 9FOO_H. | |
1383 | ||
1384 | ** Fixed some typos in the documentation. | |
1385 | ||
1386 | ** %token MY_EOF 0 is supported. | |
1387 | Before, MY_EOF was silently renumbered as 257. | |
1388 | ||
1389 | ** doc/refcard.tex is updated. | |
1390 | ||
1391 | ** %output, %file-prefix, %name-prefix. | |
1392 | New. | |
1393 | ||
1394 | ** --output | |
1395 | New, aliasing `--output-file'. | |
1396 | \f | |
1397 | * Changes in version 1.30, 2001-10-26: | |
1398 | ||
1399 | ** `--defines' and `--graph' have now an optional argument which is the | |
1400 | output file name. `-d' and `-g' do not change; they do not take any | |
1401 | argument. | |
1402 | ||
1403 | ** `%source_extension' and `%header_extension' are removed, failed | |
1404 | experiment. | |
1405 | ||
1406 | ** Portability fixes. | |
1407 | \f | |
1408 | * Changes in version 1.29, 2001-09-07: | |
1409 | ||
1410 | ** The output file does not define const, as this caused problems when used | |
1411 | with common autoconfiguration schemes. If you still use ancient compilers | |
1412 | that lack const, compile with the equivalent of the C compiler option | |
1413 | `-Dconst='. autoconf's AC_C_CONST macro provides one way to do this. | |
1414 | ||
1415 | ** Added `-g' and `--graph'. | |
1416 | ||
1417 | ** The Bison manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL. | |
1418 | ||
1419 | ** The input and the output files has automatically a similar extension. | |
1420 | ||
1421 | ** Russian translation added. | |
1422 | ||
1423 | ** NLS support updated; should hopefully be less troublesome. | |
1424 | ||
1425 | ** Added the old Bison reference card. | |
1426 | ||
1427 | ** Added `--locations' and `%locations'. | |
1428 | ||
1429 | ** Added `-S' and `--skeleton'. | |
1430 | ||
1431 | ** `%raw', `-r', `--raw' is disabled. | |
1432 | ||
1433 | ** Special characters are escaped when output. This solves the problems | |
1434 | of the #line lines with path names including backslashes. | |
1435 | ||
1436 | ** New directives. | |
1437 | `%yacc', `%fixed_output_files', `%defines', `%no_parser', `%verbose', | |
1438 | `%debug', `%source_extension' and `%header_extension'. | |
1439 | ||
1440 | ** @$ | |
1441 | Automatic location tracking. | |
1442 | \f | |
1443 | * Changes in version 1.28, 1999-07-06: | |
1444 | ||
1445 | ** Should compile better now with K&R compilers. | |
1446 | ||
1447 | ** Added NLS. | |
1448 | ||
1449 | ** Fixed a problem with escaping the double quote character. | |
1450 | ||
1451 | ** There is now a FAQ. | |
1452 | \f | |
1453 | * Changes in version 1.27: | |
1454 | ||
1455 | ** The make rule which prevented bison.simple from being created on | |
1456 | some systems has been fixed. | |
1457 | \f | |
1458 | * Changes in version 1.26: | |
1459 | ||
1460 | ** Bison now uses automake. | |
1461 | ||
1462 | ** New mailing lists: <bug-bison@gnu.org> and <help-bison@gnu.org>. | |
1463 | ||
1464 | ** Token numbers now start at 257 as previously documented, not 258. | |
1465 | ||
1466 | ** Bison honors the TMPDIR environment variable. | |
1467 | ||
1468 | ** A couple of buffer overruns have been fixed. | |
1469 | ||
1470 | ** Problems when closing files should now be reported. | |
1471 | ||
1472 | ** Generated parsers should now work even on operating systems which do | |
1473 | not provide alloca(). | |
1474 | \f | |
1475 | * Changes in version 1.25, 1995-10-16: | |
1476 | ||
1477 | ** Errors in the input grammar are not fatal; Bison keeps reading | |
1478 | the grammar file, and reports all the errors found in it. | |
1479 | ||
1480 | ** Tokens can now be specified as multiple-character strings: for | |
1481 | example, you could use "<=" for a token which looks like <=, instead | |
1482 | of chosing a name like LESSEQ. | |
1483 | ||
1484 | ** The %token_table declaration says to write a table of tokens (names | |
1485 | and numbers) into the parser file. The yylex function can use this | |
1486 | table to recognize multiple-character string tokens, or for other | |
1487 | purposes. | |
1488 | ||
1489 | ** The %no_lines declaration says not to generate any #line preprocessor | |
1490 | directives in the parser file. | |
1491 | ||
1492 | ** The %raw declaration says to use internal Bison token numbers, not | |
1493 | Yacc-compatible token numbers, when token names are defined as macros. | |
1494 | ||
1495 | ** The --no-parser option produces the parser tables without including | |
1496 | the parser engine; a project can now use its own parser engine. | |
1497 | The actions go into a separate file called NAME.act, in the form of | |
1498 | a switch statement body. | |
1499 | \f | |
1500 | * Changes in version 1.23: | |
1501 | ||
1502 | The user can define YYPARSE_PARAM as the name of an argument to be | |
1503 | passed into yyparse. The argument should have type void *. It should | |
1504 | actually point to an object. Grammar actions can access the variable | |
1505 | by casting it to the proper pointer type. | |
1506 | ||
1507 | Line numbers in output file corrected. | |
1508 | \f | |
1509 | * Changes in version 1.22: | |
1510 | ||
1511 | --help option added. | |
1512 | \f | |
1513 | * Changes in version 1.20: | |
1514 | ||
1515 | Output file does not redefine const for C++. | |
1516 | ||
1517 | Local Variables: | |
1518 | mode: outline | |
1519 | End: | |
1520 | ||
1521 | ----- | |
1522 | ||
1523 | Copyright (C) 1995-2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc. | |
1524 | ||
1525 | This file is part of Bison, the GNU Parser Generator. | |
1526 | ||
1527 | This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify | |
1528 | it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by | |
1529 | the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or | |
1530 | (at your option) any later version. | |
1531 | ||
1532 | This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, | |
1533 | but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of | |
1534 | MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the | |
1535 | GNU General Public License for more details. | |
1536 | ||
1537 | You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License | |
1538 | along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>. |