* src/reduce.c (reduce_grammar): First reduce the nonterminals,

[bison.git] / NEWS

Bison News
----------

Changes in version 1.49a:

* The initial rule is explicit.
  Bison used to play hacks with the initial rule, which the user does
  not write.  It is now explicit, and visible in the reports and
  graphs as rule 0.
      
* Useless rules are actually removed.
  Before, Bison reported the useless rules, but, although not used,
  included them in the parsers.
	 
* False `Token not used' report fixed.
  On a grammar such as

           %token useless useful
           %%
           exp: '0' %prec useful;

  where a token was used to set the precedence of the last rule,
  bison reported both `useful' and `useless' as useless tokens.

* Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31, as they caused too
  many portability hassles.

* Items overflow
  Bison no longer dumps core when there are too many items, it just
  dies.

* Token end-of-file
  The token end of file may be specified by the user, in which case,
  the user symbol is used in the reports, the graphs, and the verbose
  error messages instead of `$', which remains being the defaults.
  For instance
     %token YYEOF 0
  or
     %token YYEOF 0 "end of file"
\f
Changes in version 1.31, 2002-01-14:

* Many Bug Fixes

* GNU Gettext and %expect
  GNU Gettext asserts 10 s/r conflicts, but there are 7.  Now that
  Bison dies on incorrect %expectations, we fear there will be
  too many bug reports for Gettext, so _for the time being_, %expect
  does not trigger an error when the input file is named `plural.y'.

* Use of alloca in parsers
  If YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA is defined to 0, then the parsers will use
  malloc exclusively.  Since 1.29, but was not NEWS'ed.

  alloca is used only when compiled with GCC, to avoid portability
  problems as on AIX.

* When the generated parser lacks debugging code, YYDEBUG is now 0
  (as POSIX requires) instead of being undefined.

* User Actions
  Bison has always permitted actions such as { $$ = $1 }: it adds the
  ending semicolon.  Now if in Yacc compatibility mode, the semicolon
  is no longer output: one has to write { $$ = $1; }.

* Better C++ compliance
  The output parsers try to respect C++ namespaces.

* Reduced Grammars
  Fixed bugs when reporting useless nonterminals.

* 64 bit hosts
  The parsers work properly on 64 bit hosts.

* Error messages
  Some calls to strerror resulted in scrambled or missing error messages.

* %expect
  When the number of shift/reduce conflicts is correct, don't issue
  any warning.

* The verbose report includes the rule line numbers.

* Rule line numbers are fixed in traces.

* Swedish translation

* Parse errors
  Verbose parse error messages from the parsers are better looking.
  Before: parse error: unexpected `'/'', expecting `"number"' or `'-'' or `'(''
     Now: parse error: unexpected '/', expecting "number" or '-' or '('

* Fixed parser memory leaks.
  When the generated parser was using malloc to extend its stacks, the
  previous allocations were not freed.

* Fixed verbose output file.
  Some newlines were missing.
  Some conflicts in state descriptions were missing.

* Fixed conflict report.
  Option -v was needed to get the result.

* %expect
  Was not used.
  Mismatches are errors, not warnings.

* Fixed incorrect processing of some invalid input.

* Fixed CPP guards: 9foo.h uses BISON_9FOO_H instead of 9FOO_H.

* Fixed some typos in the documentation.

* %token MY_EOF 0 is supported.
  Before, MY_EOF was silently renumbered as 257.

* doc/refcard.tex is updated.

* %output, %file-prefix, %name-prefix.
  New.

* --output
  New, aliasing `--output-file'.
\f
Changes in version 1.30:

* `--defines' and `--graph' have now an optionnal argument which is the
  output file name. `-d' and `-g' do not change, they do not take any
  argument.

* `%source_extension' and `%header_extension' are removed, failed
  experiment.

* Portability fixes.
\f
Changes in version 1.29, 2001-09-07:

* The output file does not define const, as this caused problems when used
  with common autoconfiguration schemes.  If you still use ancient compilers
  that lack const, compile with the equivalent of the C compiler option
  `-Dconst='.  autoconf's AC_C_CONST macro provides one way to do this.

* Added `-g' and `--graph'.

* The Bison manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL.

* The input and the output files has automatically a similar extension.

* Russian translation added.

* NLS support updated; should hopefully be less troublesome.

* Added the old Bison reference card.

* Added `--locations' and `%locations'.

* Added `-S' and `--skeleton'.

* `%raw', `-r', `--raw' is disabled.

* Special characters are escaped when output.  This solves the problems
  of the #line lines with path names including backslashes.

* New directives.
  `%yacc', `%fixed_output_files', `%defines', `%no_parser', `%verbose',
  `%debug', `%source_extension' and `%header_extension'.

* @$
  Automatic location tracking.
\f
Changes in version 1.28, 1999-07-06:

* Should compile better now with K&R compilers.

* Added NLS.

* Fixed a problem with escaping the double quote character.

* There is now a FAQ.
\f
Changes in version 1.27:

* The make rule which prevented bison.simple from being created on
  some systems has been fixed.
\f
Changes in version 1.26:

* Bison now uses automake.

* New mailing lists: <bug-bison@gnu.org> and <help-bison@gnu.org>.

* Token numbers now start at 257 as previously documented, not 258.

* Bison honors the TMPDIR environment variable.

* A couple of buffer overruns have been fixed.

* Problems when closing files should now be reported.

* Generated parsers should now work even on operating systems which do
  not provide alloca().
\f
Changes in version 1.25, 1995-10-16:

* Errors in the input grammar are not fatal; Bison keeps reading
the grammar file, and reports all the errors found in it.

* Tokens can now be specified as multiple-character strings: for
example, you could use "<=" for a token which looks like <=, instead
of chosing a name like LESSEQ.

* The %token_table declaration says to write a table of tokens (names
and numbers) into the parser file.  The yylex function can use this
table to recognize multiple-character string tokens, or for other
purposes.

* The %no_lines declaration says not to generate any #line preprocessor
directives in the parser file.

* The %raw declaration says to use internal Bison token numbers, not
Yacc-compatible token numbers, when token names are defined as macros.

* The --no-parser option produces the parser tables without including
the parser engine; a project can now use its own parser engine.
The actions go into a separate file called NAME.act, in the form of
a switch statement body.
\f
Changes in version 1.23:

The user can define YYPARSE_PARAM as the name of an argument to be
passed into yyparse.  The argument should have type void *.  It should
actually point to an object.  Grammar actions can access the variable
by casting it to the proper pointer type.

Line numbers in output file corrected.
\f
Changes in version 1.22:

--help option added.
\f
Changes in version 1.20:

Output file does not redefine const for C++.

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