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1 Bison News
2 ----------
3
4 * Changes in version ?.? (????-??-??):
5
6 ** Additional yylex/yyparse arguments
7
8 The new directive %param declare additional argument to both yylex
9 and yyparse. The %lex-param, %parse-param, and %param directives
10 support one or more arguments. Instead of
11
12 %lex-param {arg1_type *arg1}
13 %lex-param {arg2_type *arg2}
14 %parse-param {arg1_type *arg1}
15 %parse-param {arg2_type *arg2}
16
17 one may now declare
18
19 %param {arg1_type *arg1} {arg2_type *arg2}
20
21 ** Java skeleton improvements
22
23 The constants for token names were moved to the Lexer interface.
24 Also, it is possible to add code to the parser's constructors using
25 "%code init" and "%define init_throws".
26
27 ** Variable api.tokens.prefix
28
29 The variable api.tokens.prefix changes the way tokens are identified in
30 the generated files. This is especially useful to avoid collisions
31 with identifiers in the target language. For instance
32
33 %token FILE for ERROR
34 %define api.tokens.prefix "TOK_"
35 %%
36 start: FILE for ERROR;
37
38 will generate the definition of the symbols TOK_FILE, TOK_for, and
39 TOK_ERROR in the generated sources. In particular, the scanner must
40 use these prefixed token names, although the grammar itself still
41 uses the short names (as in the sample rule given above).
42
43 ** Variable api.namespace
44
45 The "namespace" variable is renamed "api.namespace". Backward
46 compatibility is ensured, but upgrading is recommended.
47
48 ** Variable parse.error
49
50 The variable error controls the verbosity of error messages. The
51 use of the %error-verbose directive is deprecated in favor of
52 %define parse.error "verbose".
53
54 ** Semantic predicates
55
56 The new, experimental, semantic-predicate feature allows actions of
57 the form %?{ BOOLEAN-EXPRESSION }, which cause syntax errors (as for
58 YYERROR) if the expression evaluates to 0, and are evaluated immediately
59 in GLR parsers, rather than being deferred. The result is that they
60 allow the programmer to prune possible parses based on the values of
61 runtime expressions.
62
63 * Changes in version 2.5 (????-??-??):
64
65 ** Named References Support
66
67 Historically, Yacc and Bison have supported positional references
68 ($n, $$) to allow access to symbol values from inside of semantic
69 actions code.
70
71 Starting from this version, Bison can also accept named references.
72 When no ambiguity is possible, original symbol names may be used
73 as named references:
74
75 if_stmt : 'if' cond_expr 'then' then_stmt ';'
76 { $if_stmt = mk_if_stmt($cond_expr, $then_stmt); }
77
78 In the more common case, explicit names may be declared:
79
80 stmt[res] : 'if' expr[cond] 'then' stmt[then] 'else' stmt[else] ';'
81 { $res = mk_if_stmt($cond, $then, $else); }
82
83 Location information is also accessible using @name syntax. When
84 accessing symbol names containing dots or dashes, explicit bracketing
85 ($[sym.1]) must be used.
86
87 These features are experimental in this version. More user feedback
88 will help to stabilize them.
89
90 ** IELR(1) and Canonical LR(1) Support
91
92 IELR(1) is a minimal LR(1) parser table generation algorithm. That
93 is, given any context-free grammar, IELR(1) generates parser tables
94 with the full language recognition power of canonical LR(1) but with
95 nearly the same number of parser states as LALR(1). This reduction in
96 parser states is often an order of magnitude. More importantly,
97 because canonical LR(1)'s extra parser states may contain duplicate
98 conflicts in the case of non-LR(1) grammars, the number of conflicts
99 for IELR(1) is often an order of magnitude less as well. This can
100 significantly reduce the complexity of developing of a grammar.
101
102 Bison can now generate IELR(1) and canonical LR(1) parser tables in
103 place of its traditional LALR(1) parser tables, which remain the
104 default. You can specify the type of parser tables in the grammar
105 file with these directives:
106
107 %define lr.type lalr
108 %define lr.type ielr
109 %define lr.type canonical-lr
110
111 The default reduction optimization in the parser tables can also be
112 adjusted using `%define lr.default-reductions'. See the documentation
113 for `%define lr.type' and `%define lr.default-reductions' in the
114 section `Bison Declaration Summary' in the Bison manual for the
115 details.
116
117 These features are experimental. More user feedback will help to
118 stabilize them.
119
120 ** Unrecognized %code qualifiers are now an error not a warning.
121
122 ** %define improvements.
123
124 *** Unrecognized variables are now an error not a warning.
125
126 *** Multiple invocations for any variable is now an error not a warning.
127
128 *** Can now be invoked via the command line.
129
130 Each of these command-line options
131
132 -D NAME[=VALUE]
133 --define=NAME[=VALUE]
134
135 -F NAME[=VALUE]
136 --force-define=NAME[=VALUE]
137
138 is equivalent to this grammar file declaration
139
140 %define NAME ["VALUE"]
141
142 except that the manner in which Bison processes multiple definitions
143 for the same NAME differs. Most importantly, -F and --force-define
144 quietly override %define, but -D and --define do not. For further
145 details, see the section "Bison Options" in the Bison manual.
146
147 *** Variables renamed.
148
149 The following %define variables
150
151 api.push_pull
152 lr.keep_unreachable_states
153
154 have been renamed to
155
156 api.push-pull
157 lr.keep-unreachable-states
158
159 The old names are now deprecated but will be maintained indefinitely
160 for backward compatibility.
161
162 *** Values no longer need to be quoted in grammar file.
163
164 If a %define value is an identifier, it no longer needs to be placed
165 within quotations marks. For example,
166
167 %define api.push-pull "push"
168
169 can be rewritten as
170
171 %define api.push-pull push
172
173 ** Symbol names.
174
175 Consistently with directives (such as %error-verbose) and variables
176 (e.g. push-pull), symbol names may include dashes in any position,
177 similarly to periods and underscores. This is GNU extension over
178 POSIX Yacc whose use is reported by -Wyacc, and rejected in Yacc
179 mode (--yacc).
180
181 ** YYFAIL now produces warnings and Java parsers no longer implement it.
182
183 YYFAIL has existed for many years as an undocumented feature of
184 deterministic parsers in C generated by Bison. More recently, it was
185 a documented feature of Bison's experimental Java parsers. As
186 promised in Bison 2.4.2's NEWS entry, any appearance of YYFAIL in a
187 semantic action now produces a deprecation warning, and Java parsers
188 no longer implement YYFAIL at all. For further details, including a
189 discussion of how to suppress C preprocessor warnings about YYFAIL
190 being unused, see the Bison 2.4.2 NEWS entry.
191
192 ** Temporary hack for adding a semicolon to the user action.
193
194 Previously, Bison appended a semicolon to every user action for
195 reductions when the output language defaulted to C (specifically, when
196 neither %yacc, %language, %skeleton, or equivalent command-line
197 options were specified). This allowed actions such as
198
199 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
200
201 instead of
202
203 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
204
205 As a first step in removing this misfeature, Bison now issues a
206 warning when it appends a semicolon. Moreover, in cases where Bison
207 cannot easily determine whether a semicolon is needed (for example, an
208 action ending with a cpp directive or a braced compound initializer),
209 it no longer appends one. Thus, the C compiler might now complain
210 about a missing semicolon where it did not before. Future releases of
211 Bison will cease to append semicolons entirely.
212
213 ** Character literals not of length one.
214
215 Previously, Bison quietly converted all character literals to length
216 one. For example, without warning, Bison interpreted the operators in
217 the following grammar to be the same token:
218
219 exp: exp '++'
220 | exp '+' exp
221 ;
222
223 Bison now warns when a character literal is not of length one. In
224 some future release, Bison will report an error instead.
225
226 ** Verbose error messages fixed for nonassociative tokens.
227
228 When %error-verbose is specified, syntax error messages produced by
229 the generated parser include the unexpected token as well as a list of
230 expected tokens. Previously, this list erroneously included tokens
231 that would actually induce a syntax error because conflicts for them
232 were resolved with %nonassoc. Such tokens are now properly omitted
233 from the list.
234
235 ** Destructor calls fixed for lookaheads altered in semantic actions.
236
237 Previously for deterministic parsers in C, if a user semantic action
238 altered yychar, the parser in some cases used the old yychar value to
239 determine which destructor to call for the lookahead upon a syntax
240 error or upon parser return. This bug has been fixed.
241
242 ** C++ parsers use YYRHSLOC
243
244 Similarly to the C parsers, the C++ parsers now define the YYRHSLOC
245 macro and use it in the default YYLLOC_DEFAULT. You are encouraged
246 to use it. If, for instance, your location structure has "first"
247 and "last" members, instead of
248
249 # define YYLLOC_DEFAULT(Current, Rhs, N) \
250 do \
251 if (N) \
252 { \
253 (Current).first = (Rhs)[1].location.first; \
254 (Current).last = (Rhs)[N].location.last; \
255 } \
256 else \
257 { \
258 (Current).first = (Current).last = (Rhs)[0].location.last; \
259 } \
260 while (false)
261
262 use:
263
264 # define YYLLOC_DEFAULT(Current, Rhs, N) \
265 do \
266 if (N) \
267 { \
268 (Current).first = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, 1).first; \
269 (Current).last = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, N).last; \
270 } \
271 else \
272 { \
273 (Current).first = (Current).last = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, 0).last; \
274 } \
275 while (false)
276
277 ** YYLLOC_DEFAULT in C++
278
279 The default implementation of YYLLOC_DEFAULT used to be issued in
280 the header file. It is now output in the implementation file, after
281 the user %code sections so that its #ifndef guard does not try to
282 override the user's YYLLOC_DEFAULT if provided.
283
284 * Changes in version 2.4.3 (????-??-??):
285
286 ** Bison now obeys -Werror and --warnings=error for warnings about
287 grammar rules that are useless in the parser due to conflicts.
288
289 ** Problems with spawning M4 on at least FreeBSD 8 and FreeBSD 9 have
290 been fixed.
291
292 ** Failures in the test suite for GCC 4.5 have been fixed.
293
294 ** Failures in the test suite for some versions of Sun Studio C++ have
295 been fixed.
296
297 ** Contrary to Bison 2.4.2's NEWS entry, it has been decided that
298 warnings about undefined %prec identifiers will not be converted to
299 errors in Bison 2.5. They will remain warnings, which should be
300 sufficient for POSIX while avoiding backward compatibility issues.
301
302 * Changes in version 2.4.2 (2010-03-20):
303
304 ** Some portability problems that resulted in failures and livelocks
305 in the test suite on some versions of at least Solaris, AIX, HP-UX,
306 RHEL4, and Tru64 have been addressed. As a result, fatal Bison
307 errors should no longer cause M4 to report a broken pipe on the
308 affected platforms.
309
310 ** `%prec IDENTIFIER' requires IDENTIFIER to be defined separately.
311
312 POSIX specifies that an error be reported for any identifier that does
313 not appear on the LHS of a grammar rule and that is not defined by
314 %token, %left, %right, or %nonassoc. Bison 2.3b and later lost this
315 error report for the case when an identifier appears only after a
316 %prec directive. It is now restored. However, for backward
317 compatibility with recent Bison releases, it is only a warning for
318 now. In Bison 2.5 and later, it will return to being an error.
319 [Between the 2.4.2 and 2.4.3 releases, it was decided that this
320 warning will not be converted to an error in Bison 2.5.]
321
322 ** Detection of GNU M4 1.4.6 or newer during configure is improved.
323
324 ** Warnings from gcc's -Wundef option about undefined YYENABLE_NLS,
325 YYLTYPE_IS_TRIVIAL, and __STRICT_ANSI__ in C/C++ parsers are now
326 avoided.
327
328 ** %code is now a permanent feature.
329
330 A traditional Yacc prologue directive is written in the form:
331
332 %{CODE%}
333
334 To provide a more flexible alternative, Bison 2.3b introduced the
335 %code directive with the following forms for C/C++:
336
337 %code {CODE}
338 %code requires {CODE}
339 %code provides {CODE}
340 %code top {CODE}
341
342 These forms are now considered permanent features of Bison. See the
343 %code entries in the section "Bison Declaration Summary" in the Bison
344 manual for a summary of their functionality. See the section
345 "Prologue Alternatives" for a detailed discussion including the
346 advantages of %code over the traditional Yacc prologue directive.
347
348 Bison's Java feature as a whole including its current usage of %code
349 is still considered experimental.
350
351 ** YYFAIL is deprecated and will eventually be removed.
352
353 YYFAIL has existed for many years as an undocumented feature of
354 deterministic parsers in C generated by Bison. Previously, it was
355 documented for Bison's experimental Java parsers. YYFAIL is no longer
356 documented for Java parsers and is formally deprecated in both cases.
357 Users are strongly encouraged to migrate to YYERROR, which is
358 specified by POSIX.
359
360 Like YYERROR, you can invoke YYFAIL from a semantic action in order to
361 induce a syntax error. The most obvious difference from YYERROR is
362 that YYFAIL will automatically invoke yyerror to report the syntax
363 error so that you don't have to. However, there are several other
364 subtle differences between YYERROR and YYFAIL, and YYFAIL suffers from
365 inherent flaws when %error-verbose or `#define YYERROR_VERBOSE' is
366 used. For a more detailed discussion, see:
367
368 http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bison-patches/2009-12/msg00024.html
369
370 The upcoming Bison 2.5 will remove YYFAIL from Java parsers, but
371 deterministic parsers in C will continue to implement it. However,
372 because YYFAIL is already flawed, it seems futile to try to make new
373 Bison features compatible with it. Thus, during parser generation,
374 Bison 2.5 will produce a warning whenever it discovers YYFAIL in a
375 rule action. In a later release, YYFAIL will be disabled for
376 %error-verbose and `#define YYERROR_VERBOSE'. Eventually, YYFAIL will
377 be removed altogether.
378
379 There exists at least one case where Bison 2.5's YYFAIL warning will
380 be a false positive. Some projects add phony uses of YYFAIL and other
381 Bison-defined macros for the sole purpose of suppressing C
382 preprocessor warnings (from GCC cpp's -Wunused-macros, for example).
383 To avoid Bison's future warning, such YYFAIL uses can be moved to the
384 epilogue (that is, after the second `%%') in the Bison input file. In
385 this release (2.4.2), Bison already generates its own code to suppress
386 C preprocessor warnings for YYFAIL, so projects can remove their own
387 phony uses of YYFAIL if compatibility with Bison releases prior to
388 2.4.2 is not necessary.
389
390 ** Internationalization.
391
392 Fix a regression introduced in Bison 2.4: Under some circumstances,
393 message translations were not installed although supported by the
394 host system.
395
396 * Changes in version 2.4.1 (2008-12-11):
397
398 ** In the GLR defines file, unexpanded M4 macros in the yylval and yylloc
399 declarations have been fixed.
400
401 ** Temporary hack for adding a semicolon to the user action.
402
403 Bison used to prepend a trailing semicolon at the end of the user
404 action for reductions. This allowed actions such as
405
406 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
407
408 instead of
409
410 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
411
412 Some grammars still depend on this `feature'. Bison 2.4.1 restores
413 the previous behavior in the case of C output (specifically, when
414 neither %language or %skeleton or equivalent command-line options
415 are used) to leave more time for grammars depending on the old
416 behavior to be adjusted. Future releases of Bison will disable this
417 feature.
418
419 ** A few minor improvements to the Bison manual.
420
421 * Changes in version 2.4 (2008-11-02):
422
423 ** %language is an experimental feature.
424
425 We first introduced this feature in test release 2.3b as a cleaner
426 alternative to %skeleton. Since then, we have discussed the possibility of
427 modifying its effect on Bison's output file names. Thus, in this release,
428 we consider %language to be an experimental feature that will likely evolve
429 in future releases.
430
431 ** Forward compatibility with GNU M4 has been improved.
432
433 ** Several bugs in the C++ skeleton and the experimental Java skeleton have been
434 fixed.
435
436 * Changes in version 2.3b (2008-05-27):
437
438 ** The quotes around NAME that used to be required in the following directive
439 are now deprecated:
440
441 %define NAME "VALUE"
442
443 ** The directive `%pure-parser' is now deprecated in favor of:
444
445 %define api.pure
446
447 which has the same effect except that Bison is more careful to warn about
448 unreasonable usage in the latter case.
449
450 ** Push Parsing
451
452 Bison can now generate an LALR(1) parser in C with a push interface. That
453 is, instead of invoking `yyparse', which pulls tokens from `yylex', you can
454 push one token at a time to the parser using `yypush_parse', which will
455 return to the caller after processing each token. By default, the push
456 interface is disabled. Either of the following directives will enable it:
457
458 %define api.push_pull "push" // Just push; does not require yylex.
459 %define api.push_pull "both" // Push and pull; requires yylex.
460
461 See the new section `A Push Parser' in the Bison manual for details.
462
463 The current push parsing interface is experimental and may evolve. More user
464 feedback will help to stabilize it.
465
466 ** The -g and --graph options now output graphs in Graphviz DOT format,
467 not VCG format. Like --graph, -g now also takes an optional FILE argument
468 and thus cannot be bundled with other short options.
469
470 ** Java
471
472 Bison can now generate an LALR(1) parser in Java. The skeleton is
473 `data/lalr1.java'. Consider using the new %language directive instead of
474 %skeleton to select it.
475
476 See the new section `Java Parsers' in the Bison manual for details.
477
478 The current Java interface is experimental and may evolve. More user
479 feedback will help to stabilize it.
480
481 ** %language
482
483 This new directive specifies the programming language of the generated
484 parser, which can be C (the default), C++, or Java. Besides the skeleton
485 that Bison uses, the directive affects the names of the generated files if
486 the grammar file's name ends in ".y".
487
488 ** XML Automaton Report
489
490 Bison can now generate an XML report of the LALR(1) automaton using the new
491 `--xml' option. The current XML schema is experimental and may evolve. More
492 user feedback will help to stabilize it.
493
494 ** The grammar file may now specify the name of the parser header file using
495 %defines. For example:
496
497 %defines "parser.h"
498
499 ** When reporting useless rules, useless nonterminals, and unused terminals,
500 Bison now employs the terms "useless in grammar" instead of "useless",
501 "useless in parser" instead of "never reduced", and "unused in grammar"
502 instead of "unused".
503
504 ** Unreachable State Removal
505
506 Previously, Bison sometimes generated parser tables containing unreachable
507 states. A state can become unreachable during conflict resolution if Bison
508 disables a shift action leading to it from a predecessor state. Bison now:
509
510 1. Removes unreachable states.
511
512 2. Does not report any conflicts that appeared in unreachable states.
513 WARNING: As a result, you may need to update %expect and %expect-rr
514 directives in existing grammar files.
515
516 3. For any rule used only in such states, Bison now reports the rule as
517 "useless in parser due to conflicts".
518
519 This feature can be disabled with the following directive:
520
521 %define lr.keep_unreachable_states
522
523 See the %define entry in the `Bison Declaration Summary' in the Bison manual
524 for further discussion.
525
526 ** Lookahead Set Correction in the `.output' Report
527
528 When instructed to generate a `.output' file including lookahead sets
529 (using `--report=lookahead', for example), Bison now prints each reduction's
530 lookahead set only next to the associated state's one item that (1) is
531 associated with the same rule as the reduction and (2) has its dot at the end
532 of its RHS. Previously, Bison also erroneously printed the lookahead set
533 next to all of the state's other items associated with the same rule. This
534 bug affected only the `.output' file and not the generated parser source
535 code.
536
537 ** --report-file=FILE is a new option to override the default `.output' file
538 name.
539
540 ** The `=' that used to be required in the following directives is now
541 deprecated:
542
543 %file-prefix "parser"
544 %name-prefix "c_"
545 %output "parser.c"
546
547 ** An Alternative to `%{...%}' -- `%code QUALIFIER {CODE}'
548
549 Bison 2.3a provided a new set of directives as a more flexible alternative to
550 the traditional Yacc prologue blocks. Those have now been consolidated into
551 a single %code directive with an optional qualifier field, which identifies
552 the purpose of the code and thus the location(s) where Bison should generate
553 it:
554
555 1. `%code {CODE}' replaces `%after-header {CODE}'
556 2. `%code requires {CODE}' replaces `%start-header {CODE}'
557 3. `%code provides {CODE}' replaces `%end-header {CODE}'
558 4. `%code top {CODE}' replaces `%before-header {CODE}'
559
560 See the %code entries in section `Bison Declaration Summary' in the Bison
561 manual for a summary of the new functionality. See the new section `Prologue
562 Alternatives' for a detailed discussion including the advantages of %code
563 over the traditional Yacc prologues.
564
565 The prologue alternatives are experimental. More user feedback will help to
566 determine whether they should become permanent features.
567
568 ** Revised warning: unset or unused mid-rule values
569
570 Since Bison 2.2, Bison has warned about mid-rule values that are set but not
571 used within any of the actions of the parent rule. For example, Bison warns
572 about unused $2 in:
573
574 exp: '1' { $$ = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $1 + $4; };
575
576 Now, Bison also warns about mid-rule values that are used but not set. For
577 example, Bison warns about unset $$ in the mid-rule action in:
578
579 exp: '1' { $1 = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $2 + $4; };
580
581 However, Bison now disables both of these warnings by default since they
582 sometimes prove to be false alarms in existing grammars employing the Yacc
583 constructs $0 or $-N (where N is some positive integer).
584
585 To enable these warnings, specify the option `--warnings=midrule-values' or
586 `-W', which is a synonym for `--warnings=all'.
587
588 ** Default %destructor or %printer with `<*>' or `<>'
589
590 Bison now recognizes two separate kinds of default %destructor's and
591 %printer's:
592
593 1. Place `<*>' in a %destructor/%printer symbol list to define a default
594 %destructor/%printer for all grammar symbols for which you have formally
595 declared semantic type tags.
596
597 2. Place `<>' in a %destructor/%printer symbol list to define a default
598 %destructor/%printer for all grammar symbols without declared semantic
599 type tags.
600
601 Bison no longer supports the `%symbol-default' notation from Bison 2.3a.
602 `<*>' and `<>' combined achieve the same effect with one exception: Bison no
603 longer applies any %destructor to a mid-rule value if that mid-rule value is
604 not actually ever referenced using either $$ or $n in a semantic action.
605
606 The default %destructor's and %printer's are experimental. More user
607 feedback will help to determine whether they should become permanent
608 features.
609
610 See the section `Freeing Discarded Symbols' in the Bison manual for further
611 details.
612
613 ** %left, %right, and %nonassoc can now declare token numbers. This is required
614 by POSIX. However, see the end of section `Operator Precedence' in the Bison
615 manual for a caveat concerning the treatment of literal strings.
616
617 ** The nonfunctional --no-parser, -n, and %no-parser options have been
618 completely removed from Bison.
619
620 * Changes in version 2.3a, 2006-09-13:
621
622 ** Instead of %union, you can define and use your own union type
623 YYSTYPE if your grammar contains at least one <type> tag.
624 Your YYSTYPE need not be a macro; it can be a typedef.
625 This change is for compatibility with other Yacc implementations,
626 and is required by POSIX.
627
628 ** Locations columns and lines start at 1.
629 In accordance with the GNU Coding Standards and Emacs.
630
631 ** You may now declare per-type and default %destructor's and %printer's:
632
633 For example:
634
635 %union { char *string; }
636 %token <string> STRING1
637 %token <string> STRING2
638 %type <string> string1
639 %type <string> string2
640 %union { char character; }
641 %token <character> CHR
642 %type <character> chr
643 %destructor { free ($$); } %symbol-default
644 %destructor { free ($$); printf ("%d", @$.first_line); } STRING1 string1
645 %destructor { } <character>
646
647 guarantees that, when the parser discards any user-defined symbol that has a
648 semantic type tag other than `<character>', it passes its semantic value to
649 `free'. However, when the parser discards a `STRING1' or a `string1', it
650 also prints its line number to `stdout'. It performs only the second
651 `%destructor' in this case, so it invokes `free' only once.
652
653 [Although we failed to mention this here in the 2.3a release, the default
654 %destructor's and %printer's were experimental, and they were rewritten in
655 future versions.]
656
657 ** Except for LALR(1) parsers in C with POSIX Yacc emulation enabled (with `-y',
658 `--yacc', or `%yacc'), Bison no longer generates #define statements for
659 associating token numbers with token names. Removing the #define statements
660 helps to sanitize the global namespace during preprocessing, but POSIX Yacc
661 requires them. Bison still generates an enum for token names in all cases.
662
663 ** Handling of traditional Yacc prologue blocks is now more consistent but
664 potentially incompatible with previous releases of Bison.
665
666 As before, you declare prologue blocks in your grammar file with the
667 `%{ ... %}' syntax. To generate the pre-prologue, Bison concatenates all
668 prologue blocks that you've declared before the first %union. To generate
669 the post-prologue, Bison concatenates all prologue blocks that you've
670 declared after the first %union.
671
672 Previous releases of Bison inserted the pre-prologue into both the header
673 file and the code file in all cases except for LALR(1) parsers in C. In the
674 latter case, Bison inserted it only into the code file. For parsers in C++,
675 the point of insertion was before any token definitions (which associate
676 token numbers with names). For parsers in C, the point of insertion was
677 after the token definitions.
678
679 Now, Bison never inserts the pre-prologue into the header file. In the code
680 file, it always inserts it before the token definitions.
681
682 ** Bison now provides a more flexible alternative to the traditional Yacc
683 prologue blocks: %before-header, %start-header, %end-header, and
684 %after-header.
685
686 For example, the following declaration order in the grammar file reflects the
687 order in which Bison will output these code blocks. However, you are free to
688 declare these code blocks in your grammar file in whatever order is most
689 convenient for you:
690
691 %before-header {
692 /* Bison treats this block like a pre-prologue block: it inserts it into
693 * the code file before the contents of the header file. It does *not*
694 * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to put
695 * #include's that you want at the top of your code file. A common
696 * example is `#include "system.h"'. */
697 }
698 %start-header {
699 /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file.
700 * In both files, the point of insertion is before any Bison-generated
701 * token, semantic type, location type, and class definitions. This is a
702 * good place to define %union dependencies, for example. */
703 }
704 %union {
705 /* Unlike the traditional Yacc prologue blocks, the output order for the
706 * new %*-header blocks is not affected by their declaration position
707 * relative to any %union in the grammar file. */
708 }
709 %end-header {
710 /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file.
711 * In both files, the point of insertion is after the Bison-generated
712 * definitions. This is a good place to declare or define public
713 * functions or data structures that depend on the Bison-generated
714 * definitions. */
715 }
716 %after-header {
717 /* Bison treats this block like a post-prologue block: it inserts it into
718 * the code file after the contents of the header file. It does *not*
719 * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to declare or
720 * define internal functions or data structures that depend on the
721 * Bison-generated definitions. */
722 }
723
724 If you have multiple occurrences of any one of the above declarations, Bison
725 will concatenate the contents in declaration order.
726
727 [Although we failed to mention this here in the 2.3a release, the prologue
728 alternatives were experimental, and they were rewritten in future versions.]
729
730 ** The option `--report=look-ahead' has been changed to `--report=lookahead'.
731 The old spelling still works, but is not documented and may be removed
732 in a future release.
733
734 * Changes in version 2.3, 2006-06-05:
735
736 ** GLR grammars should now use `YYRECOVERING ()' instead of `YYRECOVERING',
737 for compatibility with LALR(1) grammars.
738
739 ** It is now documented that any definition of YYSTYPE or YYLTYPE should
740 be to a type name that does not contain parentheses or brackets.
741
742 * Changes in version 2.2, 2006-05-19:
743
744 ** The distribution terms for all Bison-generated parsers now permit
745 using the parsers in nonfree programs. Previously, this permission
746 was granted only for Bison-generated LALR(1) parsers in C.
747
748 ** %name-prefix changes the namespace name in C++ outputs.
749
750 ** The C++ parsers export their token_type.
751
752 ** Bison now allows multiple %union declarations, and concatenates
753 their contents together.
754
755 ** New warning: unused values
756 Right-hand side symbols whose values are not used are reported,
757 if the symbols have destructors. For instance:
758
759 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; }
760 | exp "+" exp
761 ;
762
763 will trigger a warning about $$ and $5 in the first rule, and $3 in
764 the second ($1 is copied to $$ by the default rule). This example
765 most likely contains three errors, and could be rewritten as:
766
767 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp
768 { $$ = $1 ? $3 : $5; free ($1 ? $5 : $3); free ($1); }
769 | exp "+" exp
770 { $$ = $1 ? $1 : $3; if ($1) free ($3); }
771 ;
772
773 However, if the original actions were really intended, memory leaks
774 and all, the warnings can be suppressed by letting Bison believe the
775 values are used, e.g.:
776
777 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; (void) ($$, $5); }
778 | exp "+" exp { $$ = $1; (void) $3; }
779 ;
780
781 If there are mid-rule actions, the warning is issued if no action
782 uses it. The following triggers no warning: $1 and $3 are used.
783
784 exp: exp { push ($1); } '+' exp { push ($3); sum (); };
785
786 The warning is intended to help catching lost values and memory leaks.
787 If a value is ignored, its associated memory typically is not reclaimed.
788
789 ** %destructor vs. YYABORT, YYACCEPT, and YYERROR.
790 Destructors are now called when user code invokes YYABORT, YYACCEPT,
791 and YYERROR, for all objects on the stack, other than objects
792 corresponding to the right-hand side of the current rule.
793
794 ** %expect, %expect-rr
795 Incorrect numbers of expected conflicts are now actual errors,
796 instead of warnings.
797
798 ** GLR, YACC parsers.
799 The %parse-params are available in the destructors (and the
800 experimental printers) as per the documentation.
801
802 ** Bison now warns if it finds a stray `$' or `@' in an action.
803
804 ** %require "VERSION"
805 This specifies that the grammar file depends on features implemented
806 in Bison version VERSION or higher.
807
808 ** lalr1.cc: The token and value types are now class members.
809 The tokens were defined as free form enums and cpp macros. YYSTYPE
810 was defined as a free form union. They are now class members:
811 tokens are enumerations of the `yy::parser::token' struct, and the
812 semantic values have the `yy::parser::semantic_type' type.
813
814 If you do not want or can update to this scheme, the directive
815 `%define "global_tokens_and_yystype" "1"' triggers the global
816 definition of tokens and YYSTYPE. This change is suitable both
817 for previous releases of Bison, and this one.
818
819 If you wish to update, then make sure older version of Bison will
820 fail using `%require "2.2"'.
821
822 ** DJGPP support added.
823 \f
824 * Changes in version 2.1, 2005-09-16:
825
826 ** The C++ lalr1.cc skeleton supports %lex-param.
827
828 ** Bison-generated parsers now support the translation of diagnostics like
829 "syntax error" into languages other than English. The default
830 language is still English. For details, please see the new
831 Internationalization section of the Bison manual. Software
832 distributors should also see the new PACKAGING file. Thanks to
833 Bruno Haible for this new feature.
834
835 ** Wording in the Bison-generated parsers has been changed slightly to
836 simplify translation. In particular, the message "memory exhausted"
837 has replaced "parser stack overflow", as the old message was not
838 always accurate for modern Bison-generated parsers.
839
840 ** Destructors are now called when the parser aborts, for all symbols left
841 behind on the stack. Also, the start symbol is now destroyed after a
842 successful parse. In both cases, the behavior was formerly inconsistent.
843
844 ** When generating verbose diagnostics, Bison-generated parsers no longer
845 quote the literal strings associated with tokens. For example, for
846 a syntax error associated with '%token NUM "number"' they might
847 print 'syntax error, unexpected number' instead of 'syntax error,
848 unexpected "number"'.
849 \f
850 * Changes in version 2.0, 2004-12-25:
851
852 ** Possibly-incompatible changes
853
854 - Bison-generated parsers no longer default to using the alloca function
855 (when available) to extend the parser stack, due to widespread
856 problems in unchecked stack-overflow detection. You can "#define
857 YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA 1" to require the use of alloca, but please read
858 the manual to determine safe values for YYMAXDEPTH in that case.
859
860 - Error token location.
861 During error recovery, the location of the syntax error is updated
862 to cover the whole sequence covered by the error token: it includes
863 the shifted symbols thrown away during the first part of the error
864 recovery, and the lookahead rejected during the second part.
865
866 - Semicolon changes:
867 . Stray semicolons are no longer allowed at the start of a grammar.
868 . Semicolons are now required after in-grammar declarations.
869
870 - Unescaped newlines are no longer allowed in character constants or
871 string literals. They were never portable, and GCC 3.4.0 has
872 dropped support for them. Better diagnostics are now generated if
873 forget a closing quote.
874
875 - NUL bytes are no longer allowed in Bison string literals, unfortunately.
876
877 ** New features
878
879 - GLR grammars now support locations.
880
881 - New directive: %initial-action.
882 This directive allows the user to run arbitrary code (including
883 initializing @$) from yyparse before parsing starts.
884
885 - A new directive "%expect-rr N" specifies the expected number of
886 reduce/reduce conflicts in GLR parsers.
887
888 - %token numbers can now be hexadecimal integers, e.g., `%token FOO 0x12d'.
889 This is a GNU extension.
890
891 - The option `--report=lookahead' was changed to `--report=look-ahead'.
892 [However, this was changed back after 2.3.]
893
894 - Experimental %destructor support has been added to lalr1.cc.
895
896 - New configure option --disable-yacc, to disable installation of the
897 yacc command and -ly library introduced in 1.875 for POSIX conformance.
898
899 ** Bug fixes
900
901 - For now, %expect-count violations are now just warnings, not errors.
902 This is for compatibility with Bison 1.75 and earlier (when there are
903 reduce/reduce conflicts) and with Bison 1.30 and earlier (when there
904 are too many or too few shift/reduce conflicts). However, in future
905 versions of Bison we plan to improve the %expect machinery so that
906 these violations will become errors again.
907
908 - Within Bison itself, numbers (e.g., goto numbers) are no longer
909 arbitrarily limited to 16-bit counts.
910
911 - Semicolons are now allowed before "|" in grammar rules, as POSIX requires.
912 \f
913 * Changes in version 1.875, 2003-01-01:
914
915 ** The documentation license has been upgraded to version 1.2
916 of the GNU Free Documentation License.
917
918 ** syntax error processing
919
920 - In Yacc-style parsers YYLLOC_DEFAULT is now used to compute error
921 locations too. This fixes bugs in error-location computation.
922
923 - %destructor
924 It is now possible to reclaim the memory associated to symbols
925 discarded during error recovery. This feature is still experimental.
926
927 - %error-verbose
928 This new directive is preferred over YYERROR_VERBOSE.
929
930 - #defining yyerror to steal internal variables is discouraged.
931 It is not guaranteed to work forever.
932
933 ** POSIX conformance
934
935 - Semicolons are once again optional at the end of grammar rules.
936 This reverts to the behavior of Bison 1.33 and earlier, and improves
937 compatibility with Yacc.
938
939 - `parse error' -> `syntax error'
940 Bison now uniformly uses the term `syntax error'; formerly, the code
941 and manual sometimes used the term `parse error' instead. POSIX
942 requires `syntax error' in diagnostics, and it was thought better to
943 be consistent.
944
945 - The documentation now emphasizes that yylex and yyerror must be
946 declared before use. C99 requires this.
947
948 - Bison now parses C99 lexical constructs like UCNs and
949 backslash-newline within C escape sequences, as POSIX 1003.1-2001 requires.
950
951 - File names are properly escaped in C output. E.g., foo\bar.y is
952 output as "foo\\bar.y".
953
954 - Yacc command and library now available
955 The Bison distribution now installs a `yacc' command, as POSIX requires.
956 Also, Bison now installs a small library liby.a containing
957 implementations of Yacc-compatible yyerror and main functions.
958 This library is normally not useful, but POSIX requires it.
959
960 - Type clashes now generate warnings, not errors.
961
962 - If the user does not define YYSTYPE as a macro, Bison now declares it
963 using typedef instead of defining it as a macro.
964 For consistency, YYLTYPE is also declared instead of defined.
965
966 ** Other compatibility issues
967
968 - %union directives can now have a tag before the `{', e.g., the
969 directive `%union foo {...}' now generates the C code
970 `typedef union foo { ... } YYSTYPE;'; this is for Yacc compatibility.
971 The default union tag is `YYSTYPE', for compatibility with Solaris 9 Yacc.
972 For consistency, YYLTYPE's struct tag is now `YYLTYPE' not `yyltype'.
973 This is for compatibility with both Yacc and Bison 1.35.
974
975 - `;' is output before the terminating `}' of an action, for
976 compatibility with Bison 1.35.
977
978 - Bison now uses a Yacc-style format for conflict reports, e.g.,
979 `conflicts: 2 shift/reduce, 1 reduce/reduce'.
980
981 - `yystype' and `yyltype' are now obsolescent macros instead of being
982 typedefs or tags; they are no longer documented and are planned to be
983 withdrawn in a future release.
984
985 ** GLR parser notes
986
987 - GLR and inline
988 Users of Bison have to decide how they handle the portability of the
989 C keyword `inline'.
990
991 - `parsing stack overflow...' -> `parser stack overflow'
992 GLR parsers now report `parser stack overflow' as per the Bison manual.
993
994 ** Bison now warns if it detects conflicting outputs to the same file,
995 e.g., it generates a warning for `bison -d -o foo.h foo.y' since
996 that command outputs both code and header to foo.h.
997
998 ** #line in output files
999 - --no-line works properly.
1000
1001 ** Bison can no longer be built by a K&R C compiler; it requires C89 or
1002 later to be built. This change originally took place a few versions
1003 ago, but nobody noticed until we recently asked someone to try
1004 building Bison with a K&R C compiler.
1005 \f
1006 * Changes in version 1.75, 2002-10-14:
1007
1008 ** Bison should now work on 64-bit hosts.
1009
1010 ** Indonesian translation thanks to Tedi Heriyanto.
1011
1012 ** GLR parsers
1013 Fix spurious parse errors.
1014
1015 ** Pure parsers
1016 Some people redefine yyerror to steal yyparse' private variables.
1017 Reenable this trick until an official feature replaces it.
1018
1019 ** Type Clashes
1020 In agreement with POSIX and with other Yaccs, leaving a default
1021 action is valid when $$ is untyped, and $1 typed:
1022
1023 untyped: ... typed;
1024
1025 but the converse remains an error:
1026
1027 typed: ... untyped;
1028
1029 ** Values of mid-rule actions
1030 The following code:
1031
1032 foo: { ... } { $$ = $1; } ...
1033
1034 was incorrectly rejected: $1 is defined in the second mid-rule
1035 action, and is equal to the $$ of the first mid-rule action.
1036 \f
1037 * Changes in version 1.50, 2002-10-04:
1038
1039 ** GLR parsing
1040 The declaration
1041 %glr-parser
1042 causes Bison to produce a Generalized LR (GLR) parser, capable of handling
1043 almost any context-free grammar, ambiguous or not. The new declarations
1044 %dprec and %merge on grammar rules allow parse-time resolution of
1045 ambiguities. Contributed by Paul Hilfinger.
1046
1047 Unfortunately Bison 1.50 does not work properly on 64-bit hosts
1048 like the Alpha, so please stick to 32-bit hosts for now.
1049
1050 ** Output Directory
1051 When not in Yacc compatibility mode, when the output file was not
1052 specified, running `bison foo/bar.y' created `foo/bar.c'. It
1053 now creates `bar.c'.
1054
1055 ** Undefined token
1056 The undefined token was systematically mapped to 2 which prevented
1057 the use of 2 by the user. This is no longer the case.
1058
1059 ** Unknown token numbers
1060 If yylex returned an out of range value, yyparse could die. This is
1061 no longer the case.
1062
1063 ** Error token
1064 According to POSIX, the error token must be 256.
1065 Bison extends this requirement by making it a preference: *if* the
1066 user specified that one of her tokens is numbered 256, then error
1067 will be mapped onto another number.
1068
1069 ** Verbose error messages
1070 They no longer report `..., expecting error or...' for states where
1071 error recovery is possible.
1072
1073 ** End token
1074 Defaults to `$end' instead of `$'.
1075
1076 ** Error recovery now conforms to documentation and to POSIX
1077 When a Bison-generated parser encounters a syntax error, it now pops
1078 the stack until it finds a state that allows shifting the error
1079 token. Formerly, it popped the stack until it found a state that
1080 allowed some non-error action other than a default reduction on the
1081 error token. The new behavior has long been the documented behavior,
1082 and has long been required by POSIX. For more details, please see
1083 Paul Eggert, "Reductions during Bison error handling" (2002-05-20)
1084 <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-bison/2002-05/msg00038.html>.
1085
1086 ** Traces
1087 Popped tokens and nonterminals are now reported.
1088
1089 ** Larger grammars
1090 Larger grammars are now supported (larger token numbers, larger grammar
1091 size (= sum of the LHS and RHS lengths), larger LALR tables).
1092 Formerly, many of these numbers ran afoul of 16-bit limits;
1093 now these limits are 32 bits on most hosts.
1094
1095 ** Explicit initial rule
1096 Bison used to play hacks with the initial rule, which the user does
1097 not write. It is now explicit, and visible in the reports and
1098 graphs as rule 0.
1099
1100 ** Useless rules
1101 Before, Bison reported the useless rules, but, although not used,
1102 included them in the parsers. They are now actually removed.
1103
1104 ** Useless rules, useless nonterminals
1105 They are now reported, as a warning, with their locations.
1106
1107 ** Rules never reduced
1108 Rules that can never be reduced because of conflicts are now
1109 reported.
1110
1111 ** Incorrect `Token not used'
1112 On a grammar such as
1113
1114 %token useless useful
1115 %%
1116 exp: '0' %prec useful;
1117
1118 where a token was used to set the precedence of the last rule,
1119 bison reported both `useful' and `useless' as useless tokens.
1120
1121 ** Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31
1122 as they caused too many portability hassles.
1123
1124 ** Default locations
1125 By an accident of design, the default computation of @$ was
1126 performed after another default computation was performed: @$ = @1.
1127 The latter is now removed: YYLLOC_DEFAULT is fully responsible of
1128 the computation of @$.
1129
1130 ** Token end-of-file
1131 The token end of file may be specified by the user, in which case,
1132 the user symbol is used in the reports, the graphs, and the verbose
1133 error messages instead of `$end', which remains being the default.
1134 For instance
1135 %token MYEOF 0
1136 or
1137 %token MYEOF 0 "end of file"
1138
1139 ** Semantic parser
1140 This old option, which has been broken for ages, is removed.
1141
1142 ** New translations
1143 Brazilian Portuguese, thanks to Alexandre Folle de Menezes.
1144 Croatian, thanks to Denis Lackovic.
1145
1146 ** Incorrect token definitions
1147 When given `%token 'a' "A"', Bison used to output `#define 'a' 65'.
1148
1149 ** Token definitions as enums
1150 Tokens are output both as the traditional #define's, and, provided
1151 the compiler supports ANSI C or is a C++ compiler, as enums.
1152 This lets debuggers display names instead of integers.
1153
1154 ** Reports
1155 In addition to --verbose, bison supports --report=THINGS, which
1156 produces additional information:
1157 - itemset
1158 complete the core item sets with their closure
1159 - lookahead [changed to `look-ahead' in 1.875e through 2.3, but changed back]
1160 explicitly associate lookahead tokens to items
1161 - solved
1162 describe shift/reduce conflicts solving.
1163 Bison used to systematically output this information on top of
1164 the report. Solved conflicts are now attached to their states.
1165
1166 ** Type clashes
1167 Previous versions don't complain when there is a type clash on
1168 the default action if the rule has a mid-rule action, such as in:
1169
1170 %type <foo> bar
1171 %%
1172 bar: '0' {} '0';
1173
1174 This is fixed.
1175
1176 ** GNU M4 is now required when using Bison.
1177 \f
1178 * Changes in version 1.35, 2002-03-25:
1179
1180 ** C Skeleton
1181 Some projects use Bison's C parser with C++ compilers, and define
1182 YYSTYPE as a class. The recent adjustment of C parsers for data
1183 alignment and 64 bit architectures made this impossible.
1184
1185 Because for the time being no real solution for C++ parser
1186 generation exists, kludges were implemented in the parser to
1187 maintain this use. In the future, when Bison has C++ parsers, this
1188 kludge will be disabled.
1189
1190 This kludge also addresses some C++ problems when the stack was
1191 extended.
1192 \f
1193 * Changes in version 1.34, 2002-03-12:
1194
1195 ** File name clashes are detected
1196 $ bison foo.y -d -o foo.x
1197 fatal error: header and parser would both be named `foo.x'
1198
1199 ** A missing `;' at the end of a rule triggers a warning
1200 In accordance with POSIX, and in agreement with other
1201 Yacc implementations, Bison will mandate this semicolon in the near
1202 future. This eases the implementation of a Bison parser of Bison
1203 grammars by making this grammar LALR(1) instead of LR(2). To
1204 facilitate the transition, this release introduces a warning.
1205
1206 ** Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31, as they caused too
1207 many portability hassles.
1208
1209 ** DJGPP support added.
1210
1211 ** Fix test suite portability problems.
1212 \f
1213 * Changes in version 1.33, 2002-02-07:
1214
1215 ** Fix C++ issues
1216 Groff could not be compiled for the definition of size_t was lacking
1217 under some conditions.
1218
1219 ** Catch invalid @n
1220 As is done with $n.
1221 \f
1222 * Changes in version 1.32, 2002-01-23:
1223
1224 ** Fix Yacc output file names
1225
1226 ** Portability fixes
1227
1228 ** Italian, Dutch translations
1229 \f
1230 * Changes in version 1.31, 2002-01-14:
1231
1232 ** Many Bug Fixes
1233
1234 ** GNU Gettext and %expect
1235 GNU Gettext asserts 10 s/r conflicts, but there are 7. Now that
1236 Bison dies on incorrect %expectations, we fear there will be
1237 too many bug reports for Gettext, so _for the time being_, %expect
1238 does not trigger an error when the input file is named `plural.y'.
1239
1240 ** Use of alloca in parsers
1241 If YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA is defined to 0, then the parsers will use
1242 malloc exclusively. Since 1.29, but was not NEWS'ed.
1243
1244 alloca is used only when compiled with GCC, to avoid portability
1245 problems as on AIX.
1246
1247 ** yyparse now returns 2 if memory is exhausted; formerly it dumped core.
1248
1249 ** When the generated parser lacks debugging code, YYDEBUG is now 0
1250 (as POSIX requires) instead of being undefined.
1251
1252 ** User Actions
1253 Bison has always permitted actions such as { $$ = $1 }: it adds the
1254 ending semicolon. Now if in Yacc compatibility mode, the semicolon
1255 is no longer output: one has to write { $$ = $1; }.
1256
1257 ** Better C++ compliance
1258 The output parsers try to respect C++ namespaces.
1259 [This turned out to be a failed experiment, and it was reverted later.]
1260
1261 ** Reduced Grammars
1262 Fixed bugs when reporting useless nonterminals.
1263
1264 ** 64 bit hosts
1265 The parsers work properly on 64 bit hosts.
1266
1267 ** Error messages
1268 Some calls to strerror resulted in scrambled or missing error messages.
1269
1270 ** %expect
1271 When the number of shift/reduce conflicts is correct, don't issue
1272 any warning.
1273
1274 ** The verbose report includes the rule line numbers.
1275
1276 ** Rule line numbers are fixed in traces.
1277
1278 ** Swedish translation
1279
1280 ** Parse errors
1281 Verbose parse error messages from the parsers are better looking.
1282 Before: parse error: unexpected `'/'', expecting `"number"' or `'-'' or `'(''
1283 Now: parse error: unexpected '/', expecting "number" or '-' or '('
1284
1285 ** Fixed parser memory leaks.
1286 When the generated parser was using malloc to extend its stacks, the
1287 previous allocations were not freed.
1288
1289 ** Fixed verbose output file.
1290 Some newlines were missing.
1291 Some conflicts in state descriptions were missing.
1292
1293 ** Fixed conflict report.
1294 Option -v was needed to get the result.
1295
1296 ** %expect
1297 Was not used.
1298 Mismatches are errors, not warnings.
1299
1300 ** Fixed incorrect processing of some invalid input.
1301
1302 ** Fixed CPP guards: 9foo.h uses BISON_9FOO_H instead of 9FOO_H.
1303
1304 ** Fixed some typos in the documentation.
1305
1306 ** %token MY_EOF 0 is supported.
1307 Before, MY_EOF was silently renumbered as 257.
1308
1309 ** doc/refcard.tex is updated.
1310
1311 ** %output, %file-prefix, %name-prefix.
1312 New.
1313
1314 ** --output
1315 New, aliasing `--output-file'.
1316 \f
1317 * Changes in version 1.30, 2001-10-26:
1318
1319 ** `--defines' and `--graph' have now an optional argument which is the
1320 output file name. `-d' and `-g' do not change; they do not take any
1321 argument.
1322
1323 ** `%source_extension' and `%header_extension' are removed, failed
1324 experiment.
1325
1326 ** Portability fixes.
1327 \f
1328 * Changes in version 1.29, 2001-09-07:
1329
1330 ** The output file does not define const, as this caused problems when used
1331 with common autoconfiguration schemes. If you still use ancient compilers
1332 that lack const, compile with the equivalent of the C compiler option
1333 `-Dconst='. autoconf's AC_C_CONST macro provides one way to do this.
1334
1335 ** Added `-g' and `--graph'.
1336
1337 ** The Bison manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL.
1338
1339 ** The input and the output files has automatically a similar extension.
1340
1341 ** Russian translation added.
1342
1343 ** NLS support updated; should hopefully be less troublesome.
1344
1345 ** Added the old Bison reference card.
1346
1347 ** Added `--locations' and `%locations'.
1348
1349 ** Added `-S' and `--skeleton'.
1350
1351 ** `%raw', `-r', `--raw' is disabled.
1352
1353 ** Special characters are escaped when output. This solves the problems
1354 of the #line lines with path names including backslashes.
1355
1356 ** New directives.
1357 `%yacc', `%fixed_output_files', `%defines', `%no_parser', `%verbose',
1358 `%debug', `%source_extension' and `%header_extension'.
1359
1360 ** @$
1361 Automatic location tracking.
1362 \f
1363 * Changes in version 1.28, 1999-07-06:
1364
1365 ** Should compile better now with K&R compilers.
1366
1367 ** Added NLS.
1368
1369 ** Fixed a problem with escaping the double quote character.
1370
1371 ** There is now a FAQ.
1372 \f
1373 * Changes in version 1.27:
1374
1375 ** The make rule which prevented bison.simple from being created on
1376 some systems has been fixed.
1377 \f
1378 * Changes in version 1.26:
1379
1380 ** Bison now uses automake.
1381
1382 ** New mailing lists: <bug-bison@gnu.org> and <help-bison@gnu.org>.
1383
1384 ** Token numbers now start at 257 as previously documented, not 258.
1385
1386 ** Bison honors the TMPDIR environment variable.
1387
1388 ** A couple of buffer overruns have been fixed.
1389
1390 ** Problems when closing files should now be reported.
1391
1392 ** Generated parsers should now work even on operating systems which do
1393 not provide alloca().
1394 \f
1395 * Changes in version 1.25, 1995-10-16:
1396
1397 ** Errors in the input grammar are not fatal; Bison keeps reading
1398 the grammar file, and reports all the errors found in it.
1399
1400 ** Tokens can now be specified as multiple-character strings: for
1401 example, you could use "<=" for a token which looks like <=, instead
1402 of chosing a name like LESSEQ.
1403
1404 ** The %token_table declaration says to write a table of tokens (names
1405 and numbers) into the parser file. The yylex function can use this
1406 table to recognize multiple-character string tokens, or for other
1407 purposes.
1408
1409 ** The %no_lines declaration says not to generate any #line preprocessor
1410 directives in the parser file.
1411
1412 ** The %raw declaration says to use internal Bison token numbers, not
1413 Yacc-compatible token numbers, when token names are defined as macros.
1414
1415 ** The --no-parser option produces the parser tables without including
1416 the parser engine; a project can now use its own parser engine.
1417 The actions go into a separate file called NAME.act, in the form of
1418 a switch statement body.
1419 \f
1420 * Changes in version 1.23:
1421
1422 The user can define YYPARSE_PARAM as the name of an argument to be
1423 passed into yyparse. The argument should have type void *. It should
1424 actually point to an object. Grammar actions can access the variable
1425 by casting it to the proper pointer type.
1426
1427 Line numbers in output file corrected.
1428 \f
1429 * Changes in version 1.22:
1430
1431 --help option added.
1432 \f
1433 * Changes in version 1.20:
1434
1435 Output file does not redefine const for C++.
1436
1437 Local Variables:
1438 mode: outline
1439 End:
1440
1441 -----
1442
1443 Copyright (C) 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003,
1444 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 Free Software Foundation,
1445 Inc.
1446
1447 This file is part of Bison, the GNU Parser Generator.
1448
1449 This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
1450 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
1451 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
1452 (at your option) any later version.
1453
1454 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
1455 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
1456 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
1457 GNU General Public License for more details.
1458
1459 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
1460 along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.