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1 Bison News
2 ----------
3
4 * Changes in version 2.5.1 (????-??-??):
5
6 ** glr.c: __attribute__ is preserved:
7
8 __attribute__ is not longer disabled when __STRICT_ANSI__ is defined
9 (i.e., when -std is passed to GCC).
10
11 ** yacc.c: YYBACKUP works as expected.
12
13 ** lalr1.java: several fixes:
14
15 The Java parser no longer throws ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException if
16 the first token leads to a syntax error. Some minor clean ups.
17
18 ** C++11 compatibility:
19
20 C and C++ parsers use nullptr instead of 0 when __cplusplus is
21 201103L or higher.
22
23 ** C++ locations:
24
25 The position and location constructors (and their initialize
26 methods) accept new arguments for line and column. Several issues
27 in the documentation were fixed.
28
29 ** liby is no longer asking for "rpl_fprintf" on some platforms.
30
31 ** Several improvements have been made to the manual:
32
33 The layout for grammar excerpts was changed to a more compact
34 scheme. Named references are motivated. The description of the
35 automaton description file (*.output) is updated to the current
36 format. Incorrect index entries were fixed. Some other errors were
37 fixed.
38
39 ** Warnings during the build procedure have been eliminated.
40
41 ** Several portability problems in the test suite have been fixed:
42
43 This includes warnings with some compilers, unexpected behavior of
44 tools such as diff, warning messages from the test suite itself,
45 etc.
46
47 * Changes in version 2.5 (2011-05-14):
48
49 ** Grammar symbol names can now contain non-initial dashes:
50
51 Consistently with directives (such as %error-verbose) and with
52 %define variables (e.g. push-pull), grammar symbol names may contain
53 dashes in any position except the beginning. This is a GNU
54 extension over POSIX Yacc. Thus, use of this extension is reported
55 by -Wyacc and rejected in Yacc mode (--yacc).
56
57 ** Named references:
58
59 Historically, Yacc and Bison have supported positional references
60 ($n, $$) to allow access to symbol values from inside of semantic
61 actions code.
62
63 Starting from this version, Bison can also accept named references.
64 When no ambiguity is possible, original symbol names may be used
65 as named references:
66
67 if_stmt : "if" cond_expr "then" then_stmt ';'
68 { $if_stmt = mk_if_stmt($cond_expr, $then_stmt); }
69
70 In the more common case, explicit names may be declared:
71
72 stmt[res] : "if" expr[cond] "then" stmt[then] "else" stmt[else] ';'
73 { $res = mk_if_stmt($cond, $then, $else); }
74
75 Location information is also accessible using @name syntax. When
76 accessing symbol names containing dots or dashes, explicit bracketing
77 ($[sym.1]) must be used.
78
79 These features are experimental in this version. More user feedback
80 will help to stabilize them.
81
82 ** IELR(1) and canonical LR(1):
83
84 IELR(1) is a minimal LR(1) parser table generation algorithm. That
85 is, given any context-free grammar, IELR(1) generates parser tables
86 with the full language-recognition power of canonical LR(1) but with
87 nearly the same number of parser states as LALR(1). This reduction
88 in parser states is often an order of magnitude. More importantly,
89 because canonical LR(1)'s extra parser states may contain duplicate
90 conflicts in the case of non-LR(1) grammars, the number of conflicts
91 for IELR(1) is often an order of magnitude less as well. This can
92 significantly reduce the complexity of developing of a grammar.
93
94 Bison can now generate IELR(1) and canonical LR(1) parser tables in
95 place of its traditional LALR(1) parser tables, which remain the
96 default. You can specify the type of parser tables in the grammar
97 file with these directives:
98
99 %define lr.type lalr
100 %define lr.type ielr
101 %define lr.type canonical-lr
102
103 The default-reduction optimization in the parser tables can also be
104 adjusted using `%define lr.default-reductions'. For details on both
105 of these features, see the new section `Tuning LR' in the Bison
106 manual.
107
108 These features are experimental. More user feedback will help to
109 stabilize them.
110
111 ** LAC (Lookahead Correction) for syntax error handling:
112
113 Canonical LR, IELR, and LALR can suffer from a couple of problems
114 upon encountering a syntax error. First, the parser might perform
115 additional parser stack reductions before discovering the syntax
116 error. Such reductions can perform user semantic actions that are
117 unexpected because they are based on an invalid token, and they
118 cause error recovery to begin in a different syntactic context than
119 the one in which the invalid token was encountered. Second, when
120 verbose error messages are enabled (with %error-verbose or the
121 obsolete `#define YYERROR_VERBOSE'), the expected token list in the
122 syntax error message can both contain invalid tokens and omit valid
123 tokens.
124
125 The culprits for the above problems are %nonassoc, default
126 reductions in inconsistent states, and parser state merging. Thus,
127 IELR and LALR suffer the most. Canonical LR can suffer only if
128 %nonassoc is used or if default reductions are enabled for
129 inconsistent states.
130
131 LAC is a new mechanism within the parsing algorithm that solves
132 these problems for canonical LR, IELR, and LALR without sacrificing
133 %nonassoc, default reductions, or state merging. When LAC is in
134 use, canonical LR and IELR behave almost exactly the same for both
135 syntactically acceptable and syntactically unacceptable input.
136 While LALR still does not support the full language-recognition
137 power of canonical LR and IELR, LAC at least enables LALR's syntax
138 error handling to correctly reflect LALR's language-recognition
139 power.
140
141 Currently, LAC is only supported for deterministic parsers in C.
142 You can enable LAC with the following directive:
143
144 %define parse.lac full
145
146 See the new section `LAC' in the Bison manual for additional
147 details including a few caveats.
148
149 LAC is an experimental feature. More user feedback will help to
150 stabilize it.
151
152 ** %define improvements:
153
154 *** Can now be invoked via the command line:
155
156 Each of these command-line options
157
158 -D NAME[=VALUE]
159 --define=NAME[=VALUE]
160
161 -F NAME[=VALUE]
162 --force-define=NAME[=VALUE]
163
164 is equivalent to this grammar file declaration
165
166 %define NAME ["VALUE"]
167
168 except that the manner in which Bison processes multiple definitions
169 for the same NAME differs. Most importantly, -F and --force-define
170 quietly override %define, but -D and --define do not. For further
171 details, see the section `Bison Options' in the Bison manual.
172
173 *** Variables renamed:
174
175 The following %define variables
176
177 api.push_pull
178 lr.keep_unreachable_states
179
180 have been renamed to
181
182 api.push-pull
183 lr.keep-unreachable-states
184
185 The old names are now deprecated but will be maintained indefinitely
186 for backward compatibility.
187
188 *** Values no longer need to be quoted in the grammar file:
189
190 If a %define value is an identifier, it no longer needs to be placed
191 within quotations marks. For example,
192
193 %define api.push-pull "push"
194
195 can be rewritten as
196
197 %define api.push-pull push
198
199 *** Unrecognized variables are now errors not warnings.
200
201 *** Multiple invocations for any variable is now an error not a warning.
202
203 ** Unrecognized %code qualifiers are now errors not warnings.
204
205 ** Character literals not of length one:
206
207 Previously, Bison quietly converted all character literals to length
208 one. For example, without warning, Bison interpreted the operators in
209 the following grammar to be the same token:
210
211 exp: exp '++'
212 | exp '+' exp
213 ;
214
215 Bison now warns when a character literal is not of length one. In
216 some future release, Bison will start reporting an error instead.
217
218 ** Destructor calls fixed for lookaheads altered in semantic actions:
219
220 Previously for deterministic parsers in C, if a user semantic action
221 altered yychar, the parser in some cases used the old yychar value to
222 determine which destructor to call for the lookahead upon a syntax
223 error or upon parser return. This bug has been fixed.
224
225 ** C++ parsers use YYRHSLOC:
226
227 Similarly to the C parsers, the C++ parsers now define the YYRHSLOC
228 macro and use it in the default YYLLOC_DEFAULT. You are encouraged
229 to use it. If, for instance, your location structure has `first'
230 and `last' members, instead of
231
232 # define YYLLOC_DEFAULT(Current, Rhs, N) \
233 do \
234 if (N) \
235 { \
236 (Current).first = (Rhs)[1].location.first; \
237 (Current).last = (Rhs)[N].location.last; \
238 } \
239 else \
240 { \
241 (Current).first = (Current).last = (Rhs)[0].location.last; \
242 } \
243 while (false)
244
245 use:
246
247 # define YYLLOC_DEFAULT(Current, Rhs, N) \
248 do \
249 if (N) \
250 { \
251 (Current).first = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, 1).first; \
252 (Current).last = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, N).last; \
253 } \
254 else \
255 { \
256 (Current).first = (Current).last = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, 0).last; \
257 } \
258 while (false)
259
260 ** YYLLOC_DEFAULT in C++:
261
262 The default implementation of YYLLOC_DEFAULT used to be issued in
263 the header file. It is now output in the implementation file, after
264 the user %code sections so that its #ifndef guard does not try to
265 override the user's YYLLOC_DEFAULT if provided.
266
267 ** YYFAIL now produces warnings and Java parsers no longer implement it:
268
269 YYFAIL has existed for many years as an undocumented feature of
270 deterministic parsers in C generated by Bison. More recently, it was
271 a documented feature of Bison's experimental Java parsers. As
272 promised in Bison 2.4.2's NEWS entry, any appearance of YYFAIL in a
273 semantic action now produces a deprecation warning, and Java parsers
274 no longer implement YYFAIL at all. For further details, including a
275 discussion of how to suppress C preprocessor warnings about YYFAIL
276 being unused, see the Bison 2.4.2 NEWS entry.
277
278 ** Temporary hack for adding a semicolon to the user action:
279
280 Previously, Bison appended a semicolon to every user action for
281 reductions when the output language defaulted to C (specifically, when
282 neither %yacc, %language, %skeleton, or equivalent command-line
283 options were specified). This allowed actions such as
284
285 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
286
287 instead of
288
289 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
290
291 As a first step in removing this misfeature, Bison now issues a
292 warning when it appends a semicolon. Moreover, in cases where Bison
293 cannot easily determine whether a semicolon is needed (for example, an
294 action ending with a cpp directive or a braced compound initializer),
295 it no longer appends one. Thus, the C compiler might now complain
296 about a missing semicolon where it did not before. Future releases of
297 Bison will cease to append semicolons entirely.
298
299 ** Verbose syntax error message fixes:
300
301 When %error-verbose or the obsolete `#define YYERROR_VERBOSE' is
302 specified, syntax error messages produced by the generated parser
303 include the unexpected token as well as a list of expected tokens.
304 The effect of %nonassoc on these verbose messages has been corrected
305 in two ways, but a more complete fix requires LAC, described above:
306
307 *** When %nonassoc is used, there can exist parser states that accept no
308 tokens, and so the parser does not always require a lookahead token
309 in order to detect a syntax error. Because no unexpected token or
310 expected tokens can then be reported, the verbose syntax error
311 message described above is suppressed, and the parser instead
312 reports the simpler message, `syntax error'. Previously, this
313 suppression was sometimes erroneously triggered by %nonassoc when a
314 lookahead was actually required. Now verbose messages are
315 suppressed only when all previous lookaheads have already been
316 shifted or discarded.
317
318 *** Previously, the list of expected tokens erroneously included tokens
319 that would actually induce a syntax error because conflicts for them
320 were resolved with %nonassoc in the current parser state. Such
321 tokens are now properly omitted from the list.
322
323 *** Expected token lists are still often wrong due to state merging
324 (from LALR or IELR) and default reductions, which can both add
325 invalid tokens and subtract valid tokens. Canonical LR almost
326 completely fixes this problem by eliminating state merging and
327 default reductions. However, there is one minor problem left even
328 when using canonical LR and even after the fixes above. That is,
329 if the resolution of a conflict with %nonassoc appears in a later
330 parser state than the one at which some syntax error is
331 discovered, the conflicted token is still erroneously included in
332 the expected token list. Bison's new LAC implementation,
333 described above, eliminates this problem and the need for
334 canonical LR. However, LAC is still experimental and is disabled
335 by default.
336
337 ** Java skeleton fixes:
338
339 *** A location handling bug has been fixed.
340
341 *** The top element of each of the value stack and location stack is now
342 cleared when popped so that it can be garbage collected.
343
344 *** Parser traces now print the top element of the stack.
345
346 ** -W/--warnings fixes:
347
348 *** Bison now properly recognizes the `no-' versions of categories:
349
350 For example, given the following command line, Bison now enables all
351 warnings except warnings for incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc:
352
353 bison -Wall,no-yacc gram.y
354
355 *** Bison now treats S/R and R/R conflicts like other warnings:
356
357 Previously, conflict reports were independent of Bison's normal
358 warning system. Now, Bison recognizes the warning categories
359 `conflicts-sr' and `conflicts-rr'. This change has important
360 consequences for the -W and --warnings command-line options. For
361 example:
362
363 bison -Wno-conflicts-sr gram.y # S/R conflicts not reported
364 bison -Wno-conflicts-rr gram.y # R/R conflicts not reported
365 bison -Wnone gram.y # no conflicts are reported
366 bison -Werror gram.y # any conflict is an error
367
368 However, as before, if the %expect or %expect-rr directive is
369 specified, an unexpected number of conflicts is an error, and an
370 expected number of conflicts is not reported, so -W and --warning
371 then have no effect on the conflict report.
372
373 *** The `none' category no longer disables a preceding `error':
374
375 For example, for the following command line, Bison now reports
376 errors instead of warnings for incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc:
377
378 bison -Werror,none,yacc gram.y
379
380 *** The `none' category now disables all Bison warnings:
381
382 Previously, the `none' category disabled only Bison warnings for
383 which there existed a specific -W/--warning category. However,
384 given the following command line, Bison is now guaranteed to
385 suppress all warnings:
386
387 bison -Wnone gram.y
388
389 ** Precedence directives can now assign token number 0:
390
391 Since Bison 2.3b, which restored the ability of precedence
392 directives to assign token numbers, doing so for token number 0 has
393 produced an assertion failure. For example:
394
395 %left END 0
396
397 This bug has been fixed.
398
399 * Changes in version 2.4.3 (2010-08-05):
400
401 ** Bison now obeys -Werror and --warnings=error for warnings about
402 grammar rules that are useless in the parser due to conflicts.
403
404 ** Problems with spawning M4 on at least FreeBSD 8 and FreeBSD 9 have
405 been fixed.
406
407 ** Failures in the test suite for GCC 4.5 have been fixed.
408
409 ** Failures in the test suite for some versions of Sun Studio C++ have
410 been fixed.
411
412 ** Contrary to Bison 2.4.2's NEWS entry, it has been decided that
413 warnings about undefined %prec identifiers will not be converted to
414 errors in Bison 2.5. They will remain warnings, which should be
415 sufficient for POSIX while avoiding backward compatibility issues.
416
417 ** Minor documentation fixes.
418
419 * Changes in version 2.4.2 (2010-03-20):
420
421 ** Some portability problems that resulted in failures and livelocks
422 in the test suite on some versions of at least Solaris, AIX, HP-UX,
423 RHEL4, and Tru64 have been addressed. As a result, fatal Bison
424 errors should no longer cause M4 to report a broken pipe on the
425 affected platforms.
426
427 ** `%prec IDENTIFIER' requires IDENTIFIER to be defined separately.
428
429 POSIX specifies that an error be reported for any identifier that does
430 not appear on the LHS of a grammar rule and that is not defined by
431 %token, %left, %right, or %nonassoc. Bison 2.3b and later lost this
432 error report for the case when an identifier appears only after a
433 %prec directive. It is now restored. However, for backward
434 compatibility with recent Bison releases, it is only a warning for
435 now. In Bison 2.5 and later, it will return to being an error.
436 [Between the 2.4.2 and 2.4.3 releases, it was decided that this
437 warning will not be converted to an error in Bison 2.5.]
438
439 ** Detection of GNU M4 1.4.6 or newer during configure is improved.
440
441 ** Warnings from gcc's -Wundef option about undefined YYENABLE_NLS,
442 YYLTYPE_IS_TRIVIAL, and __STRICT_ANSI__ in C/C++ parsers are now
443 avoided.
444
445 ** %code is now a permanent feature.
446
447 A traditional Yacc prologue directive is written in the form:
448
449 %{CODE%}
450
451 To provide a more flexible alternative, Bison 2.3b introduced the
452 %code directive with the following forms for C/C++:
453
454 %code {CODE}
455 %code requires {CODE}
456 %code provides {CODE}
457 %code top {CODE}
458
459 These forms are now considered permanent features of Bison. See the
460 %code entries in the section "Bison Declaration Summary" in the Bison
461 manual for a summary of their functionality. See the section
462 "Prologue Alternatives" for a detailed discussion including the
463 advantages of %code over the traditional Yacc prologue directive.
464
465 Bison's Java feature as a whole including its current usage of %code
466 is still considered experimental.
467
468 ** YYFAIL is deprecated and will eventually be removed.
469
470 YYFAIL has existed for many years as an undocumented feature of
471 deterministic parsers in C generated by Bison. Previously, it was
472 documented for Bison's experimental Java parsers. YYFAIL is no longer
473 documented for Java parsers and is formally deprecated in both cases.
474 Users are strongly encouraged to migrate to YYERROR, which is
475 specified by POSIX.
476
477 Like YYERROR, you can invoke YYFAIL from a semantic action in order to
478 induce a syntax error. The most obvious difference from YYERROR is
479 that YYFAIL will automatically invoke yyerror to report the syntax
480 error so that you don't have to. However, there are several other
481 subtle differences between YYERROR and YYFAIL, and YYFAIL suffers from
482 inherent flaws when %error-verbose or `#define YYERROR_VERBOSE' is
483 used. For a more detailed discussion, see:
484
485 http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bison-patches/2009-12/msg00024.html
486
487 The upcoming Bison 2.5 will remove YYFAIL from Java parsers, but
488 deterministic parsers in C will continue to implement it. However,
489 because YYFAIL is already flawed, it seems futile to try to make new
490 Bison features compatible with it. Thus, during parser generation,
491 Bison 2.5 will produce a warning whenever it discovers YYFAIL in a
492 rule action. In a later release, YYFAIL will be disabled for
493 %error-verbose and `#define YYERROR_VERBOSE'. Eventually, YYFAIL will
494 be removed altogether.
495
496 There exists at least one case where Bison 2.5's YYFAIL warning will
497 be a false positive. Some projects add phony uses of YYFAIL and other
498 Bison-defined macros for the sole purpose of suppressing C
499 preprocessor warnings (from GCC cpp's -Wunused-macros, for example).
500 To avoid Bison's future warning, such YYFAIL uses can be moved to the
501 epilogue (that is, after the second `%%') in the Bison input file. In
502 this release (2.4.2), Bison already generates its own code to suppress
503 C preprocessor warnings for YYFAIL, so projects can remove their own
504 phony uses of YYFAIL if compatibility with Bison releases prior to
505 2.4.2 is not necessary.
506
507 ** Internationalization.
508
509 Fix a regression introduced in Bison 2.4: Under some circumstances,
510 message translations were not installed although supported by the
511 host system.
512
513 * Changes in version 2.4.1 (2008-12-11):
514
515 ** In the GLR defines file, unexpanded M4 macros in the yylval and yylloc
516 declarations have been fixed.
517
518 ** Temporary hack for adding a semicolon to the user action.
519
520 Bison used to prepend a trailing semicolon at the end of the user
521 action for reductions. This allowed actions such as
522
523 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
524
525 instead of
526
527 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
528
529 Some grammars still depend on this `feature'. Bison 2.4.1 restores
530 the previous behavior in the case of C output (specifically, when
531 neither %language or %skeleton or equivalent command-line options
532 are used) to leave more time for grammars depending on the old
533 behavior to be adjusted. Future releases of Bison will disable this
534 feature.
535
536 ** A few minor improvements to the Bison manual.
537
538 * Changes in version 2.4 (2008-11-02):
539
540 ** %language is an experimental feature.
541
542 We first introduced this feature in test release 2.3b as a cleaner
543 alternative to %skeleton. Since then, we have discussed the possibility of
544 modifying its effect on Bison's output file names. Thus, in this release,
545 we consider %language to be an experimental feature that will likely evolve
546 in future releases.
547
548 ** Forward compatibility with GNU M4 has been improved.
549
550 ** Several bugs in the C++ skeleton and the experimental Java skeleton have been
551 fixed.
552
553 * Changes in version 2.3b (2008-05-27):
554
555 ** The quotes around NAME that used to be required in the following directive
556 are now deprecated:
557
558 %define NAME "VALUE"
559
560 ** The directive `%pure-parser' is now deprecated in favor of:
561
562 %define api.pure
563
564 which has the same effect except that Bison is more careful to warn about
565 unreasonable usage in the latter case.
566
567 ** Push Parsing
568
569 Bison can now generate an LALR(1) parser in C with a push interface. That
570 is, instead of invoking `yyparse', which pulls tokens from `yylex', you can
571 push one token at a time to the parser using `yypush_parse', which will
572 return to the caller after processing each token. By default, the push
573 interface is disabled. Either of the following directives will enable it:
574
575 %define api.push_pull "push" // Just push; does not require yylex.
576 %define api.push_pull "both" // Push and pull; requires yylex.
577
578 See the new section `A Push Parser' in the Bison manual for details.
579
580 The current push parsing interface is experimental and may evolve. More user
581 feedback will help to stabilize it.
582
583 ** The -g and --graph options now output graphs in Graphviz DOT format,
584 not VCG format. Like --graph, -g now also takes an optional FILE argument
585 and thus cannot be bundled with other short options.
586
587 ** Java
588
589 Bison can now generate an LALR(1) parser in Java. The skeleton is
590 `data/lalr1.java'. Consider using the new %language directive instead of
591 %skeleton to select it.
592
593 See the new section `Java Parsers' in the Bison manual for details.
594
595 The current Java interface is experimental and may evolve. More user
596 feedback will help to stabilize it.
597
598 ** %language
599
600 This new directive specifies the programming language of the generated
601 parser, which can be C (the default), C++, or Java. Besides the skeleton
602 that Bison uses, the directive affects the names of the generated files if
603 the grammar file's name ends in ".y".
604
605 ** XML Automaton Report
606
607 Bison can now generate an XML report of the LALR(1) automaton using the new
608 `--xml' option. The current XML schema is experimental and may evolve. More
609 user feedback will help to stabilize it.
610
611 ** The grammar file may now specify the name of the parser header file using
612 %defines. For example:
613
614 %defines "parser.h"
615
616 ** When reporting useless rules, useless nonterminals, and unused terminals,
617 Bison now employs the terms "useless in grammar" instead of "useless",
618 "useless in parser" instead of "never reduced", and "unused in grammar"
619 instead of "unused".
620
621 ** Unreachable State Removal
622
623 Previously, Bison sometimes generated parser tables containing unreachable
624 states. A state can become unreachable during conflict resolution if Bison
625 disables a shift action leading to it from a predecessor state. Bison now:
626
627 1. Removes unreachable states.
628
629 2. Does not report any conflicts that appeared in unreachable states.
630 WARNING: As a result, you may need to update %expect and %expect-rr
631 directives in existing grammar files.
632
633 3. For any rule used only in such states, Bison now reports the rule as
634 "useless in parser due to conflicts".
635
636 This feature can be disabled with the following directive:
637
638 %define lr.keep_unreachable_states
639
640 See the %define entry in the `Bison Declaration Summary' in the Bison manual
641 for further discussion.
642
643 ** Lookahead Set Correction in the `.output' Report
644
645 When instructed to generate a `.output' file including lookahead sets
646 (using `--report=lookahead', for example), Bison now prints each reduction's
647 lookahead set only next to the associated state's one item that (1) is
648 associated with the same rule as the reduction and (2) has its dot at the end
649 of its RHS. Previously, Bison also erroneously printed the lookahead set
650 next to all of the state's other items associated with the same rule. This
651 bug affected only the `.output' file and not the generated parser source
652 code.
653
654 ** --report-file=FILE is a new option to override the default `.output' file
655 name.
656
657 ** The `=' that used to be required in the following directives is now
658 deprecated:
659
660 %file-prefix "parser"
661 %name-prefix "c_"
662 %output "parser.c"
663
664 ** An Alternative to `%{...%}' -- `%code QUALIFIER {CODE}'
665
666 Bison 2.3a provided a new set of directives as a more flexible alternative to
667 the traditional Yacc prologue blocks. Those have now been consolidated into
668 a single %code directive with an optional qualifier field, which identifies
669 the purpose of the code and thus the location(s) where Bison should generate
670 it:
671
672 1. `%code {CODE}' replaces `%after-header {CODE}'
673 2. `%code requires {CODE}' replaces `%start-header {CODE}'
674 3. `%code provides {CODE}' replaces `%end-header {CODE}'
675 4. `%code top {CODE}' replaces `%before-header {CODE}'
676
677 See the %code entries in section `Bison Declaration Summary' in the Bison
678 manual for a summary of the new functionality. See the new section `Prologue
679 Alternatives' for a detailed discussion including the advantages of %code
680 over the traditional Yacc prologues.
681
682 The prologue alternatives are experimental. More user feedback will help to
683 determine whether they should become permanent features.
684
685 ** Revised warning: unset or unused mid-rule values
686
687 Since Bison 2.2, Bison has warned about mid-rule values that are set but not
688 used within any of the actions of the parent rule. For example, Bison warns
689 about unused $2 in:
690
691 exp: '1' { $$ = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $1 + $4; };
692
693 Now, Bison also warns about mid-rule values that are used but not set. For
694 example, Bison warns about unset $$ in the mid-rule action in:
695
696 exp: '1' { $1 = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $2 + $4; };
697
698 However, Bison now disables both of these warnings by default since they
699 sometimes prove to be false alarms in existing grammars employing the Yacc
700 constructs $0 or $-N (where N is some positive integer).
701
702 To enable these warnings, specify the option `--warnings=midrule-values' or
703 `-W', which is a synonym for `--warnings=all'.
704
705 ** Default %destructor or %printer with `<*>' or `<>'
706
707 Bison now recognizes two separate kinds of default %destructor's and
708 %printer's:
709
710 1. Place `<*>' in a %destructor/%printer symbol list to define a default
711 %destructor/%printer for all grammar symbols for which you have formally
712 declared semantic type tags.
713
714 2. Place `<>' in a %destructor/%printer symbol list to define a default
715 %destructor/%printer for all grammar symbols without declared semantic
716 type tags.
717
718 Bison no longer supports the `%symbol-default' notation from Bison 2.3a.
719 `<*>' and `<>' combined achieve the same effect with one exception: Bison no
720 longer applies any %destructor to a mid-rule value if that mid-rule value is
721 not actually ever referenced using either $$ or $n in a semantic action.
722
723 The default %destructor's and %printer's are experimental. More user
724 feedback will help to determine whether they should become permanent
725 features.
726
727 See the section `Freeing Discarded Symbols' in the Bison manual for further
728 details.
729
730 ** %left, %right, and %nonassoc can now declare token numbers. This is required
731 by POSIX. However, see the end of section `Operator Precedence' in the Bison
732 manual for a caveat concerning the treatment of literal strings.
733
734 ** The nonfunctional --no-parser, -n, and %no-parser options have been
735 completely removed from Bison.
736
737 * Changes in version 2.3a, 2006-09-13:
738
739 ** Instead of %union, you can define and use your own union type
740 YYSTYPE if your grammar contains at least one <type> tag.
741 Your YYSTYPE need not be a macro; it can be a typedef.
742 This change is for compatibility with other Yacc implementations,
743 and is required by POSIX.
744
745 ** Locations columns and lines start at 1.
746 In accordance with the GNU Coding Standards and Emacs.
747
748 ** You may now declare per-type and default %destructor's and %printer's:
749
750 For example:
751
752 %union { char *string; }
753 %token <string> STRING1
754 %token <string> STRING2
755 %type <string> string1
756 %type <string> string2
757 %union { char character; }
758 %token <character> CHR
759 %type <character> chr
760 %destructor { free ($$); } %symbol-default
761 %destructor { free ($$); printf ("%d", @$.first_line); } STRING1 string1
762 %destructor { } <character>
763
764 guarantees that, when the parser discards any user-defined symbol that has a
765 semantic type tag other than `<character>', it passes its semantic value to
766 `free'. However, when the parser discards a `STRING1' or a `string1', it
767 also prints its line number to `stdout'. It performs only the second
768 `%destructor' in this case, so it invokes `free' only once.
769
770 [Although we failed to mention this here in the 2.3a release, the default
771 %destructor's and %printer's were experimental, and they were rewritten in
772 future versions.]
773
774 ** Except for LALR(1) parsers in C with POSIX Yacc emulation enabled (with `-y',
775 `--yacc', or `%yacc'), Bison no longer generates #define statements for
776 associating token numbers with token names. Removing the #define statements
777 helps to sanitize the global namespace during preprocessing, but POSIX Yacc
778 requires them. Bison still generates an enum for token names in all cases.
779
780 ** Handling of traditional Yacc prologue blocks is now more consistent but
781 potentially incompatible with previous releases of Bison.
782
783 As before, you declare prologue blocks in your grammar file with the
784 `%{ ... %}' syntax. To generate the pre-prologue, Bison concatenates all
785 prologue blocks that you've declared before the first %union. To generate
786 the post-prologue, Bison concatenates all prologue blocks that you've
787 declared after the first %union.
788
789 Previous releases of Bison inserted the pre-prologue into both the header
790 file and the code file in all cases except for LALR(1) parsers in C. In the
791 latter case, Bison inserted it only into the code file. For parsers in C++,
792 the point of insertion was before any token definitions (which associate
793 token numbers with names). For parsers in C, the point of insertion was
794 after the token definitions.
795
796 Now, Bison never inserts the pre-prologue into the header file. In the code
797 file, it always inserts it before the token definitions.
798
799 ** Bison now provides a more flexible alternative to the traditional Yacc
800 prologue blocks: %before-header, %start-header, %end-header, and
801 %after-header.
802
803 For example, the following declaration order in the grammar file reflects the
804 order in which Bison will output these code blocks. However, you are free to
805 declare these code blocks in your grammar file in whatever order is most
806 convenient for you:
807
808 %before-header {
809 /* Bison treats this block like a pre-prologue block: it inserts it into
810 * the code file before the contents of the header file. It does *not*
811 * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to put
812 * #include's that you want at the top of your code file. A common
813 * example is `#include "system.h"'. */
814 }
815 %start-header {
816 /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file.
817 * In both files, the point of insertion is before any Bison-generated
818 * token, semantic type, location type, and class definitions. This is a
819 * good place to define %union dependencies, for example. */
820 }
821 %union {
822 /* Unlike the traditional Yacc prologue blocks, the output order for the
823 * new %*-header blocks is not affected by their declaration position
824 * relative to any %union in the grammar file. */
825 }
826 %end-header {
827 /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file.
828 * In both files, the point of insertion is after the Bison-generated
829 * definitions. This is a good place to declare or define public
830 * functions or data structures that depend on the Bison-generated
831 * definitions. */
832 }
833 %after-header {
834 /* Bison treats this block like a post-prologue block: it inserts it into
835 * the code file after the contents of the header file. It does *not*
836 * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to declare or
837 * define internal functions or data structures that depend on the
838 * Bison-generated definitions. */
839 }
840
841 If you have multiple occurrences of any one of the above declarations, Bison
842 will concatenate the contents in declaration order.
843
844 [Although we failed to mention this here in the 2.3a release, the prologue
845 alternatives were experimental, and they were rewritten in future versions.]
846
847 ** The option `--report=look-ahead' has been changed to `--report=lookahead'.
848 The old spelling still works, but is not documented and may be removed
849 in a future release.
850
851 * Changes in version 2.3, 2006-06-05:
852
853 ** GLR grammars should now use `YYRECOVERING ()' instead of `YYRECOVERING',
854 for compatibility with LALR(1) grammars.
855
856 ** It is now documented that any definition of YYSTYPE or YYLTYPE should
857 be to a type name that does not contain parentheses or brackets.
858
859 * Changes in version 2.2, 2006-05-19:
860
861 ** The distribution terms for all Bison-generated parsers now permit
862 using the parsers in nonfree programs. Previously, this permission
863 was granted only for Bison-generated LALR(1) parsers in C.
864
865 ** %name-prefix changes the namespace name in C++ outputs.
866
867 ** The C++ parsers export their token_type.
868
869 ** Bison now allows multiple %union declarations, and concatenates
870 their contents together.
871
872 ** New warning: unused values
873 Right-hand side symbols whose values are not used are reported,
874 if the symbols have destructors. For instance:
875
876 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; }
877 | exp "+" exp
878 ;
879
880 will trigger a warning about $$ and $5 in the first rule, and $3 in
881 the second ($1 is copied to $$ by the default rule). This example
882 most likely contains three errors, and could be rewritten as:
883
884 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp
885 { $$ = $1 ? $3 : $5; free ($1 ? $5 : $3); free ($1); }
886 | exp "+" exp
887 { $$ = $1 ? $1 : $3; if ($1) free ($3); }
888 ;
889
890 However, if the original actions were really intended, memory leaks
891 and all, the warnings can be suppressed by letting Bison believe the
892 values are used, e.g.:
893
894 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; (void) ($$, $5); }
895 | exp "+" exp { $$ = $1; (void) $3; }
896 ;
897
898 If there are mid-rule actions, the warning is issued if no action
899 uses it. The following triggers no warning: $1 and $3 are used.
900
901 exp: exp { push ($1); } '+' exp { push ($3); sum (); };
902
903 The warning is intended to help catching lost values and memory leaks.
904 If a value is ignored, its associated memory typically is not reclaimed.
905
906 ** %destructor vs. YYABORT, YYACCEPT, and YYERROR.
907 Destructors are now called when user code invokes YYABORT, YYACCEPT,
908 and YYERROR, for all objects on the stack, other than objects
909 corresponding to the right-hand side of the current rule.
910
911 ** %expect, %expect-rr
912 Incorrect numbers of expected conflicts are now actual errors,
913 instead of warnings.
914
915 ** GLR, YACC parsers.
916 The %parse-params are available in the destructors (and the
917 experimental printers) as per the documentation.
918
919 ** Bison now warns if it finds a stray `$' or `@' in an action.
920
921 ** %require "VERSION"
922 This specifies that the grammar file depends on features implemented
923 in Bison version VERSION or higher.
924
925 ** lalr1.cc: The token and value types are now class members.
926 The tokens were defined as free form enums and cpp macros. YYSTYPE
927 was defined as a free form union. They are now class members:
928 tokens are enumerations of the `yy::parser::token' struct, and the
929 semantic values have the `yy::parser::semantic_type' type.
930
931 If you do not want or can update to this scheme, the directive
932 `%define "global_tokens_and_yystype" "1"' triggers the global
933 definition of tokens and YYSTYPE. This change is suitable both
934 for previous releases of Bison, and this one.
935
936 If you wish to update, then make sure older version of Bison will
937 fail using `%require "2.2"'.
938
939 ** DJGPP support added.
940 \f
941 * Changes in version 2.1, 2005-09-16:
942
943 ** The C++ lalr1.cc skeleton supports %lex-param.
944
945 ** Bison-generated parsers now support the translation of diagnostics like
946 "syntax error" into languages other than English. The default
947 language is still English. For details, please see the new
948 Internationalization section of the Bison manual. Software
949 distributors should also see the new PACKAGING file. Thanks to
950 Bruno Haible for this new feature.
951
952 ** Wording in the Bison-generated parsers has been changed slightly to
953 simplify translation. In particular, the message "memory exhausted"
954 has replaced "parser stack overflow", as the old message was not
955 always accurate for modern Bison-generated parsers.
956
957 ** Destructors are now called when the parser aborts, for all symbols left
958 behind on the stack. Also, the start symbol is now destroyed after a
959 successful parse. In both cases, the behavior was formerly inconsistent.
960
961 ** When generating verbose diagnostics, Bison-generated parsers no longer
962 quote the literal strings associated with tokens. For example, for
963 a syntax error associated with '%token NUM "number"' they might
964 print 'syntax error, unexpected number' instead of 'syntax error,
965 unexpected "number"'.
966 \f
967 * Changes in version 2.0, 2004-12-25:
968
969 ** Possibly-incompatible changes
970
971 - Bison-generated parsers no longer default to using the alloca function
972 (when available) to extend the parser stack, due to widespread
973 problems in unchecked stack-overflow detection. You can "#define
974 YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA 1" to require the use of alloca, but please read
975 the manual to determine safe values for YYMAXDEPTH in that case.
976
977 - Error token location.
978 During error recovery, the location of the syntax error is updated
979 to cover the whole sequence covered by the error token: it includes
980 the shifted symbols thrown away during the first part of the error
981 recovery, and the lookahead rejected during the second part.
982
983 - Semicolon changes:
984 . Stray semicolons are no longer allowed at the start of a grammar.
985 . Semicolons are now required after in-grammar declarations.
986
987 - Unescaped newlines are no longer allowed in character constants or
988 string literals. They were never portable, and GCC 3.4.0 has
989 dropped support for them. Better diagnostics are now generated if
990 forget a closing quote.
991
992 - NUL bytes are no longer allowed in Bison string literals, unfortunately.
993
994 ** New features
995
996 - GLR grammars now support locations.
997
998 - New directive: %initial-action.
999 This directive allows the user to run arbitrary code (including
1000 initializing @$) from yyparse before parsing starts.
1001
1002 - A new directive "%expect-rr N" specifies the expected number of
1003 reduce/reduce conflicts in GLR parsers.
1004
1005 - %token numbers can now be hexadecimal integers, e.g., `%token FOO 0x12d'.
1006 This is a GNU extension.
1007
1008 - The option `--report=lookahead' was changed to `--report=look-ahead'.
1009 [However, this was changed back after 2.3.]
1010
1011 - Experimental %destructor support has been added to lalr1.cc.
1012
1013 - New configure option --disable-yacc, to disable installation of the
1014 yacc command and -ly library introduced in 1.875 for POSIX conformance.
1015
1016 ** Bug fixes
1017
1018 - For now, %expect-count violations are now just warnings, not errors.
1019 This is for compatibility with Bison 1.75 and earlier (when there are
1020 reduce/reduce conflicts) and with Bison 1.30 and earlier (when there
1021 are too many or too few shift/reduce conflicts). However, in future
1022 versions of Bison we plan to improve the %expect machinery so that
1023 these violations will become errors again.
1024
1025 - Within Bison itself, numbers (e.g., goto numbers) are no longer
1026 arbitrarily limited to 16-bit counts.
1027
1028 - Semicolons are now allowed before "|" in grammar rules, as POSIX requires.
1029 \f
1030 * Changes in version 1.875, 2003-01-01:
1031
1032 ** The documentation license has been upgraded to version 1.2
1033 of the GNU Free Documentation License.
1034
1035 ** syntax error processing
1036
1037 - In Yacc-style parsers YYLLOC_DEFAULT is now used to compute error
1038 locations too. This fixes bugs in error-location computation.
1039
1040 - %destructor
1041 It is now possible to reclaim the memory associated to symbols
1042 discarded during error recovery. This feature is still experimental.
1043
1044 - %error-verbose
1045 This new directive is preferred over YYERROR_VERBOSE.
1046
1047 - #defining yyerror to steal internal variables is discouraged.
1048 It is not guaranteed to work forever.
1049
1050 ** POSIX conformance
1051
1052 - Semicolons are once again optional at the end of grammar rules.
1053 This reverts to the behavior of Bison 1.33 and earlier, and improves
1054 compatibility with Yacc.
1055
1056 - `parse error' -> `syntax error'
1057 Bison now uniformly uses the term `syntax error'; formerly, the code
1058 and manual sometimes used the term `parse error' instead. POSIX
1059 requires `syntax error' in diagnostics, and it was thought better to
1060 be consistent.
1061
1062 - The documentation now emphasizes that yylex and yyerror must be
1063 declared before use. C99 requires this.
1064
1065 - Bison now parses C99 lexical constructs like UCNs and
1066 backslash-newline within C escape sequences, as POSIX 1003.1-2001 requires.
1067
1068 - File names are properly escaped in C output. E.g., foo\bar.y is
1069 output as "foo\\bar.y".
1070
1071 - Yacc command and library now available
1072 The Bison distribution now installs a `yacc' command, as POSIX requires.
1073 Also, Bison now installs a small library liby.a containing
1074 implementations of Yacc-compatible yyerror and main functions.
1075 This library is normally not useful, but POSIX requires it.
1076
1077 - Type clashes now generate warnings, not errors.
1078
1079 - If the user does not define YYSTYPE as a macro, Bison now declares it
1080 using typedef instead of defining it as a macro.
1081 For consistency, YYLTYPE is also declared instead of defined.
1082
1083 ** Other compatibility issues
1084
1085 - %union directives can now have a tag before the `{', e.g., the
1086 directive `%union foo {...}' now generates the C code
1087 `typedef union foo { ... } YYSTYPE;'; this is for Yacc compatibility.
1088 The default union tag is `YYSTYPE', for compatibility with Solaris 9 Yacc.
1089 For consistency, YYLTYPE's struct tag is now `YYLTYPE' not `yyltype'.
1090 This is for compatibility with both Yacc and Bison 1.35.
1091
1092 - `;' is output before the terminating `}' of an action, for
1093 compatibility with Bison 1.35.
1094
1095 - Bison now uses a Yacc-style format for conflict reports, e.g.,
1096 `conflicts: 2 shift/reduce, 1 reduce/reduce'.
1097
1098 - `yystype' and `yyltype' are now obsolescent macros instead of being
1099 typedefs or tags; they are no longer documented and are planned to be
1100 withdrawn in a future release.
1101
1102 ** GLR parser notes
1103
1104 - GLR and inline
1105 Users of Bison have to decide how they handle the portability of the
1106 C keyword `inline'.
1107
1108 - `parsing stack overflow...' -> `parser stack overflow'
1109 GLR parsers now report `parser stack overflow' as per the Bison manual.
1110
1111 ** Bison now warns if it detects conflicting outputs to the same file,
1112 e.g., it generates a warning for `bison -d -o foo.h foo.y' since
1113 that command outputs both code and header to foo.h.
1114
1115 ** #line in output files
1116 - --no-line works properly.
1117
1118 ** Bison can no longer be built by a K&R C compiler; it requires C89 or
1119 later to be built. This change originally took place a few versions
1120 ago, but nobody noticed until we recently asked someone to try
1121 building Bison with a K&R C compiler.
1122 \f
1123 * Changes in version 1.75, 2002-10-14:
1124
1125 ** Bison should now work on 64-bit hosts.
1126
1127 ** Indonesian translation thanks to Tedi Heriyanto.
1128
1129 ** GLR parsers
1130 Fix spurious parse errors.
1131
1132 ** Pure parsers
1133 Some people redefine yyerror to steal yyparse' private variables.
1134 Reenable this trick until an official feature replaces it.
1135
1136 ** Type Clashes
1137 In agreement with POSIX and with other Yaccs, leaving a default
1138 action is valid when $$ is untyped, and $1 typed:
1139
1140 untyped: ... typed;
1141
1142 but the converse remains an error:
1143
1144 typed: ... untyped;
1145
1146 ** Values of mid-rule actions
1147 The following code:
1148
1149 foo: { ... } { $$ = $1; } ...
1150
1151 was incorrectly rejected: $1 is defined in the second mid-rule
1152 action, and is equal to the $$ of the first mid-rule action.
1153 \f
1154 * Changes in version 1.50, 2002-10-04:
1155
1156 ** GLR parsing
1157 The declaration
1158 %glr-parser
1159 causes Bison to produce a Generalized LR (GLR) parser, capable of handling
1160 almost any context-free grammar, ambiguous or not. The new declarations
1161 %dprec and %merge on grammar rules allow parse-time resolution of
1162 ambiguities. Contributed by Paul Hilfinger.
1163
1164 Unfortunately Bison 1.50 does not work properly on 64-bit hosts
1165 like the Alpha, so please stick to 32-bit hosts for now.
1166
1167 ** Output Directory
1168 When not in Yacc compatibility mode, when the output file was not
1169 specified, running `bison foo/bar.y' created `foo/bar.c'. It
1170 now creates `bar.c'.
1171
1172 ** Undefined token
1173 The undefined token was systematically mapped to 2 which prevented
1174 the use of 2 by the user. This is no longer the case.
1175
1176 ** Unknown token numbers
1177 If yylex returned an out of range value, yyparse could die. This is
1178 no longer the case.
1179
1180 ** Error token
1181 According to POSIX, the error token must be 256.
1182 Bison extends this requirement by making it a preference: *if* the
1183 user specified that one of her tokens is numbered 256, then error
1184 will be mapped onto another number.
1185
1186 ** Verbose error messages
1187 They no longer report `..., expecting error or...' for states where
1188 error recovery is possible.
1189
1190 ** End token
1191 Defaults to `$end' instead of `$'.
1192
1193 ** Error recovery now conforms to documentation and to POSIX
1194 When a Bison-generated parser encounters a syntax error, it now pops
1195 the stack until it finds a state that allows shifting the error
1196 token. Formerly, it popped the stack until it found a state that
1197 allowed some non-error action other than a default reduction on the
1198 error token. The new behavior has long been the documented behavior,
1199 and has long been required by POSIX. For more details, please see
1200 Paul Eggert, "Reductions during Bison error handling" (2002-05-20)
1201 <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-bison/2002-05/msg00038.html>.
1202
1203 ** Traces
1204 Popped tokens and nonterminals are now reported.
1205
1206 ** Larger grammars
1207 Larger grammars are now supported (larger token numbers, larger grammar
1208 size (= sum of the LHS and RHS lengths), larger LALR tables).
1209 Formerly, many of these numbers ran afoul of 16-bit limits;
1210 now these limits are 32 bits on most hosts.
1211
1212 ** Explicit initial rule
1213 Bison used to play hacks with the initial rule, which the user does
1214 not write. It is now explicit, and visible in the reports and
1215 graphs as rule 0.
1216
1217 ** Useless rules
1218 Before, Bison reported the useless rules, but, although not used,
1219 included them in the parsers. They are now actually removed.
1220
1221 ** Useless rules, useless nonterminals
1222 They are now reported, as a warning, with their locations.
1223
1224 ** Rules never reduced
1225 Rules that can never be reduced because of conflicts are now
1226 reported.
1227
1228 ** Incorrect `Token not used'
1229 On a grammar such as
1230
1231 %token useless useful
1232 %%
1233 exp: '0' %prec useful;
1234
1235 where a token was used to set the precedence of the last rule,
1236 bison reported both `useful' and `useless' as useless tokens.
1237
1238 ** Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31
1239 as they caused too many portability hassles.
1240
1241 ** Default locations
1242 By an accident of design, the default computation of @$ was
1243 performed after another default computation was performed: @$ = @1.
1244 The latter is now removed: YYLLOC_DEFAULT is fully responsible of
1245 the computation of @$.
1246
1247 ** Token end-of-file
1248 The token end of file may be specified by the user, in which case,
1249 the user symbol is used in the reports, the graphs, and the verbose
1250 error messages instead of `$end', which remains being the default.
1251 For instance
1252 %token MYEOF 0
1253 or
1254 %token MYEOF 0 "end of file"
1255
1256 ** Semantic parser
1257 This old option, which has been broken for ages, is removed.
1258
1259 ** New translations
1260 Brazilian Portuguese, thanks to Alexandre Folle de Menezes.
1261 Croatian, thanks to Denis Lackovic.
1262
1263 ** Incorrect token definitions
1264 When given `%token 'a' "A"', Bison used to output `#define 'a' 65'.
1265
1266 ** Token definitions as enums
1267 Tokens are output both as the traditional #define's, and, provided
1268 the compiler supports ANSI C or is a C++ compiler, as enums.
1269 This lets debuggers display names instead of integers.
1270
1271 ** Reports
1272 In addition to --verbose, bison supports --report=THINGS, which
1273 produces additional information:
1274 - itemset
1275 complete the core item sets with their closure
1276 - lookahead [changed to `look-ahead' in 1.875e through 2.3, but changed back]
1277 explicitly associate lookahead tokens to items
1278 - solved
1279 describe shift/reduce conflicts solving.
1280 Bison used to systematically output this information on top of
1281 the report. Solved conflicts are now attached to their states.
1282
1283 ** Type clashes
1284 Previous versions don't complain when there is a type clash on
1285 the default action if the rule has a mid-rule action, such as in:
1286
1287 %type <foo> bar
1288 %%
1289 bar: '0' {} '0';
1290
1291 This is fixed.
1292
1293 ** GNU M4 is now required when using Bison.
1294 \f
1295 * Changes in version 1.35, 2002-03-25:
1296
1297 ** C Skeleton
1298 Some projects use Bison's C parser with C++ compilers, and define
1299 YYSTYPE as a class. The recent adjustment of C parsers for data
1300 alignment and 64 bit architectures made this impossible.
1301
1302 Because for the time being no real solution for C++ parser
1303 generation exists, kludges were implemented in the parser to
1304 maintain this use. In the future, when Bison has C++ parsers, this
1305 kludge will be disabled.
1306
1307 This kludge also addresses some C++ problems when the stack was
1308 extended.
1309 \f
1310 * Changes in version 1.34, 2002-03-12:
1311
1312 ** File name clashes are detected
1313 $ bison foo.y -d -o foo.x
1314 fatal error: header and parser would both be named `foo.x'
1315
1316 ** A missing `;' at the end of a rule triggers a warning
1317 In accordance with POSIX, and in agreement with other
1318 Yacc implementations, Bison will mandate this semicolon in the near
1319 future. This eases the implementation of a Bison parser of Bison
1320 grammars by making this grammar LALR(1) instead of LR(2). To
1321 facilitate the transition, this release introduces a warning.
1322
1323 ** Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31, as they caused too
1324 many portability hassles.
1325
1326 ** DJGPP support added.
1327
1328 ** Fix test suite portability problems.
1329 \f
1330 * Changes in version 1.33, 2002-02-07:
1331
1332 ** Fix C++ issues
1333 Groff could not be compiled for the definition of size_t was lacking
1334 under some conditions.
1335
1336 ** Catch invalid @n
1337 As is done with $n.
1338 \f
1339 * Changes in version 1.32, 2002-01-23:
1340
1341 ** Fix Yacc output file names
1342
1343 ** Portability fixes
1344
1345 ** Italian, Dutch translations
1346 \f
1347 * Changes in version 1.31, 2002-01-14:
1348
1349 ** Many Bug Fixes
1350
1351 ** GNU Gettext and %expect
1352 GNU Gettext asserts 10 s/r conflicts, but there are 7. Now that
1353 Bison dies on incorrect %expectations, we fear there will be
1354 too many bug reports for Gettext, so _for the time being_, %expect
1355 does not trigger an error when the input file is named `plural.y'.
1356
1357 ** Use of alloca in parsers
1358 If YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA is defined to 0, then the parsers will use
1359 malloc exclusively. Since 1.29, but was not NEWS'ed.
1360
1361 alloca is used only when compiled with GCC, to avoid portability
1362 problems as on AIX.
1363
1364 ** yyparse now returns 2 if memory is exhausted; formerly it dumped core.
1365
1366 ** When the generated parser lacks debugging code, YYDEBUG is now 0
1367 (as POSIX requires) instead of being undefined.
1368
1369 ** User Actions
1370 Bison has always permitted actions such as { $$ = $1 }: it adds the
1371 ending semicolon. Now if in Yacc compatibility mode, the semicolon
1372 is no longer output: one has to write { $$ = $1; }.
1373
1374 ** Better C++ compliance
1375 The output parsers try to respect C++ namespaces.
1376 [This turned out to be a failed experiment, and it was reverted later.]
1377
1378 ** Reduced Grammars
1379 Fixed bugs when reporting useless nonterminals.
1380
1381 ** 64 bit hosts
1382 The parsers work properly on 64 bit hosts.
1383
1384 ** Error messages
1385 Some calls to strerror resulted in scrambled or missing error messages.
1386
1387 ** %expect
1388 When the number of shift/reduce conflicts is correct, don't issue
1389 any warning.
1390
1391 ** The verbose report includes the rule line numbers.
1392
1393 ** Rule line numbers are fixed in traces.
1394
1395 ** Swedish translation
1396
1397 ** Parse errors
1398 Verbose parse error messages from the parsers are better looking.
1399 Before: parse error: unexpected `'/'', expecting `"number"' or `'-'' or `'(''
1400 Now: parse error: unexpected '/', expecting "number" or '-' or '('
1401
1402 ** Fixed parser memory leaks.
1403 When the generated parser was using malloc to extend its stacks, the
1404 previous allocations were not freed.
1405
1406 ** Fixed verbose output file.
1407 Some newlines were missing.
1408 Some conflicts in state descriptions were missing.
1409
1410 ** Fixed conflict report.
1411 Option -v was needed to get the result.
1412
1413 ** %expect
1414 Was not used.
1415 Mismatches are errors, not warnings.
1416
1417 ** Fixed incorrect processing of some invalid input.
1418
1419 ** Fixed CPP guards: 9foo.h uses BISON_9FOO_H instead of 9FOO_H.
1420
1421 ** Fixed some typos in the documentation.
1422
1423 ** %token MY_EOF 0 is supported.
1424 Before, MY_EOF was silently renumbered as 257.
1425
1426 ** doc/refcard.tex is updated.
1427
1428 ** %output, %file-prefix, %name-prefix.
1429 New.
1430
1431 ** --output
1432 New, aliasing `--output-file'.
1433 \f
1434 * Changes in version 1.30, 2001-10-26:
1435
1436 ** `--defines' and `--graph' have now an optional argument which is the
1437 output file name. `-d' and `-g' do not change; they do not take any
1438 argument.
1439
1440 ** `%source_extension' and `%header_extension' are removed, failed
1441 experiment.
1442
1443 ** Portability fixes.
1444 \f
1445 * Changes in version 1.29, 2001-09-07:
1446
1447 ** The output file does not define const, as this caused problems when used
1448 with common autoconfiguration schemes. If you still use ancient compilers
1449 that lack const, compile with the equivalent of the C compiler option
1450 `-Dconst='. autoconf's AC_C_CONST macro provides one way to do this.
1451
1452 ** Added `-g' and `--graph'.
1453
1454 ** The Bison manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL.
1455
1456 ** The input and the output files has automatically a similar extension.
1457
1458 ** Russian translation added.
1459
1460 ** NLS support updated; should hopefully be less troublesome.
1461
1462 ** Added the old Bison reference card.
1463
1464 ** Added `--locations' and `%locations'.
1465
1466 ** Added `-S' and `--skeleton'.
1467
1468 ** `%raw', `-r', `--raw' is disabled.
1469
1470 ** Special characters are escaped when output. This solves the problems
1471 of the #line lines with path names including backslashes.
1472
1473 ** New directives.
1474 `%yacc', `%fixed_output_files', `%defines', `%no_parser', `%verbose',
1475 `%debug', `%source_extension' and `%header_extension'.
1476
1477 ** @$
1478 Automatic location tracking.
1479 \f
1480 * Changes in version 1.28, 1999-07-06:
1481
1482 ** Should compile better now with K&R compilers.
1483
1484 ** Added NLS.
1485
1486 ** Fixed a problem with escaping the double quote character.
1487
1488 ** There is now a FAQ.
1489 \f
1490 * Changes in version 1.27:
1491
1492 ** The make rule which prevented bison.simple from being created on
1493 some systems has been fixed.
1494 \f
1495 * Changes in version 1.26:
1496
1497 ** Bison now uses automake.
1498
1499 ** New mailing lists: <bug-bison@gnu.org> and <help-bison@gnu.org>.
1500
1501 ** Token numbers now start at 257 as previously documented, not 258.
1502
1503 ** Bison honors the TMPDIR environment variable.
1504
1505 ** A couple of buffer overruns have been fixed.
1506
1507 ** Problems when closing files should now be reported.
1508
1509 ** Generated parsers should now work even on operating systems which do
1510 not provide alloca().
1511 \f
1512 * Changes in version 1.25, 1995-10-16:
1513
1514 ** Errors in the input grammar are not fatal; Bison keeps reading
1515 the grammar file, and reports all the errors found in it.
1516
1517 ** Tokens can now be specified as multiple-character strings: for
1518 example, you could use "<=" for a token which looks like <=, instead
1519 of chosing a name like LESSEQ.
1520
1521 ** The %token_table declaration says to write a table of tokens (names
1522 and numbers) into the parser file. The yylex function can use this
1523 table to recognize multiple-character string tokens, or for other
1524 purposes.
1525
1526 ** The %no_lines declaration says not to generate any #line preprocessor
1527 directives in the parser file.
1528
1529 ** The %raw declaration says to use internal Bison token numbers, not
1530 Yacc-compatible token numbers, when token names are defined as macros.
1531
1532 ** The --no-parser option produces the parser tables without including
1533 the parser engine; a project can now use its own parser engine.
1534 The actions go into a separate file called NAME.act, in the form of
1535 a switch statement body.
1536 \f
1537 * Changes in version 1.23:
1538
1539 The user can define YYPARSE_PARAM as the name of an argument to be
1540 passed into yyparse. The argument should have type void *. It should
1541 actually point to an object. Grammar actions can access the variable
1542 by casting it to the proper pointer type.
1543
1544 Line numbers in output file corrected.
1545 \f
1546 * Changes in version 1.22:
1547
1548 --help option added.
1549 \f
1550 * Changes in version 1.20:
1551
1552 Output file does not redefine const for C++.
1553
1554 Local Variables:
1555 mode: outline
1556 End:
1557
1558 -----
1559
1560 Copyright (C) 1995-2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
1561
1562 This file is part of Bison, the GNU Parser Generator.
1563
1564 This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
1565 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
1566 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
1567 (at your option) any later version.
1568
1569 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
1570 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
1571 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
1572 GNU General Public License for more details.
1573
1574 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
1575 along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.