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