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