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