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