NEWS

   1 Bison News
   2 ----------
   3
   4 Changes in version 1.49a:
   5
   6 * Items overflow
   7   Bison no longer dumps core when there are too many items, it just
   8   dies.
   9
  10 * Token end-of-file
  11   The token end of file may be specified by the user, in which case,
  12   the user symbol is used in the reports, the graphs, and the verbose
  13   error messages instead of `$', which remains being the defaults.
  14   For instance
  15      %token YYEOF 0
  16   or
  17      %token YYEOF 0 "end of file"
  18 \f
  19 Changes in version 1.31, 2002-01-14:
  20
  21 * Many Bug Fixes
  22
  23 * GNU Gettext and %expect
  24   GNU Gettext asserts 10 s/r conflicts, but there are 7.  Now that
  25   Bison dies on incorrect %expectations, we fear there will be
  26   too many bug reports for Gettext, so _for the time being_, %expect
  27   does not trigger an error when the input file is named `plural.y'.
  28
  29 * Use of alloca in parsers
  30   If YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA is defined to 0, then the parsers will use
  31   malloc exclusively.  Since 1.29, but was not NEWS'ed.
  32
  33   alloca is used only when compiled with GCC, to avoid portability
  34   problems as on AIX.
  35
  36 * When the generated parser lacks debugging code, YYDEBUG is now 0
  37   (as POSIX requires) instead of being undefined.
  38
  39 * User Actions
  40   Bison has always permitted actions such as { $$ = $1 }: it adds the
  41   ending semicolon.  Now if in Yacc compatibility mode, the semicolon
  42   is no longer output: one has to write { $$ = $1; }.
  43
  44 * Better C++ compliance
  45   The output parsers try to respect C++ namespaces.
  46
  47 * Reduced Grammars
  48   Fixed bugs when reporting useless nonterminals.
  49
  50 * 64 bit hosts
  51   The parsers work properly on 64 bit hosts.
  52
  53 * Error messages
  54   Some calls to strerror resulted in scrambled or missing error messages.
  55
  56 * %expect
  57   When the number of shift/reduce conflicts is correct, don't issue
  58   any warning.
  59
  60 * The verbose report includes the rule line numbers.
  61
  62 * Rule line numbers are fixed in traces.
  63
  64 * Swedish translation
  65
  66 * Parse errors
  67   Verbose parse error messages from the parsers are better looking.
  68   Before: parse error: unexpected `'/'', expecting `"number"' or `'-'' or `'(''
  69      Now: parse error: unexpected '/', expecting "number" or '-' or '('
  70
  71 * Fixed parser memory leaks.
  72   When the generated parser was using malloc to extend its stacks, the
  73   previous allocations were not freed.
  74
  75 * Fixed verbose output file.
  76   Some newlines were missing.
  77   Some conflicts in state descriptions were missing.
  78
  79 * Fixed conflict report.
  80   Option -v was needed to get the result.
  81
  82 * %expect
  83   Was not used.
  84   Mismatches are errors, not warnings.
  85
  86 * Fixed incorrect processing of some invalid input.
  87
  88 * Fixed CPP guards: 9foo.h uses BISON_9FOO_H instead of 9FOO_H.
  89
  90 * Fixed some typos in the documentation.
  91
  92 * %token MY_EOF 0 is supported.
  93   Before, MY_EOF was silently renumbered as 257.
  94
  95 * doc/refcard.tex is updated.
  96
  97 * %output, %file-prefix, %name-prefix.
  98   New.
  99
 100 * --output
 101   New, aliasing `--output-file'.
 102 \f
 103 Changes in version 1.30:
 104
 105 * `--defines' and `--graph' have now an optionnal argument which is the
 106   output file name. `-d' and `-g' do not change, they do not take any
 107   argument.
 108
 109 * `%source_extension' and `%header_extension' are removed, failed
 110   experiment.
 111
 112 * Portability fixes.
 113 \f
 114 Changes in version 1.29, 2001-09-07:
 115
 116 * The output file does not define const, as this caused problems when used
 117   with common autoconfiguration schemes.  If you still use ancient compilers
 118   that lack const, compile with the equivalent of the C compiler option
 119   `-Dconst='.  autoconf's AC_C_CONST macro provides one way to do this.
 120
 121 * Added `-g' and `--graph'.
 122
 123 * The Bison manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL.
 124
 125 * The input and the output files has automatically a similar extension.
 126
 127 * Russian translation added.
 128
 129 * NLS support updated; should hopefully be less troublesome.
 130
 131 * Added the old Bison reference card.
 132
 133 * Added `--locations' and `%locations'.
 134
 135 * Added `-S' and `--skeleton'.
 136
 137 * `%raw', `-r', `--raw' is disabled.
 138
 139 * Special characters are escaped when output.  This solves the problems
 140   of the #line lines with path names including backslashes.
 141
 142 * New directives.
 143   `%yacc', `%fixed_output_files', `%defines', `%no_parser', `%verbose',
 144   `%debug', `%source_extension' and `%header_extension'.
 145
 146 * @$
 147   Automatic location tracking.
 148 \f
 149 Changes in version 1.28, 1999-07-06:
 150
 151 * Should compile better now with K&R compilers.
 152
 153 * Added NLS.
 154
 155 * Fixed a problem with escaping the double quote character.
 156
 157 * There is now a FAQ.
 158 \f
 159 Changes in version 1.27:
 160
 161 * The make rule which prevented bison.simple from being created on
 162   some systems has been fixed.
 163 \f
 164 Changes in version 1.26:
 165
 166 * Bison now uses automake.
 167
 168 * New mailing lists: <bug-bison@gnu.org> and <help-bison@gnu.org>.
 169
 170 * Token numbers now start at 257 as previously documented, not 258.
 171
 172 * Bison honors the TMPDIR environment variable.
 173
 174 * A couple of buffer overruns have been fixed.
 175
 176 * Problems when closing files should now be reported.
 177
 178 * Generated parsers should now work even on operating systems which do
 179   not provide alloca().
 180 \f
 181 Changes in version 1.25, 1995-10-16:
 182
 183 * Errors in the input grammar are not fatal; Bison keeps reading
 184 the grammar file, and reports all the errors found in it.
 185
 186 * Tokens can now be specified as multiple-character strings: for
 187 example, you could use "<=" for a token which looks like <=, instead
 188 of chosing a name like LESSEQ.
 189
 190 * The %token_table declaration says to write a table of tokens (names
 191 and numbers) into the parser file.  The yylex function can use this
 192 table to recognize multiple-character string tokens, or for other
 193 purposes.
 194
 195 * The %no_lines declaration says not to generate any #line preprocessor
 196 directives in the parser file.
 197
 198 * The %raw declaration says to use internal Bison token numbers, not
 199 Yacc-compatible token numbers, when token names are defined as macros.
 200
 201 * The --no-parser option produces the parser tables without including
 202 the parser engine; a project can now use its own parser engine.
 203 The actions go into a separate file called NAME.act, in the form of
 204 a switch statement body.
 205 \f
 206 Changes in version 1.23:
 207
 208 The user can define YYPARSE_PARAM as the name of an argument to be
 209 passed into yyparse.  The argument should have type void *.  It should
 210 actually point to an object.  Grammar actions can access the variable
 211 by casting it to the proper pointer type.
 212
 213 Line numbers in output file corrected.
 214 \f
 215 Changes in version 1.22:
 216
 217 --help option added.
 218 \f
 219 Changes in version 1.20:
 220
 221 Output file does not redefine const for C++.
 222
 223 Local Variables:
 224 mode: outline
 225 End: