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