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1 Bison News
2 ----------
3
4 * Changes in version ?.? (????-??-??):
5
6 ** Additional yylex/yyparse arguments
7
8 The new directive %param declare additional argument to both yylex
9 and yyparse. The %lex-param, %parse-param, and %param directives
10 support one or more arguments. Instead of
11
12 %lex-param {arg1_type *arg1}
13 %lex-param {arg2_type *arg2}
14 %parse-param {arg1_type *arg1}
15 %parse-param {arg2_type *arg2}
16
17 one may now declare
18
19 %param {arg1_type *arg1} {arg2_type *arg2}
20
21 ** Java skeleton improvements
22
23 The constants for token names were moved to the Lexer interface.
24 Also, it is possible to add code to the parser's constructors using
25 "%code init" and "%define init_throws".
26
27 ** Variable api.tokens.prefix
28
29 The variable api.tokens.prefix changes the way tokens are identified in
30 the generated files. This is especially useful to avoid collisions
31 with identifiers in the target language. For instance
32
33 %token FILE for ERROR
34 %define api.tokens.prefix "TOK_"
35 %%
36 start: FILE for ERROR;
37
38 will generate the definition of the symbols TOK_FILE, TOK_for, and
39 TOK_ERROR in the generated sources. In particular, the scanner must
40 use these prefixed token names, although the grammar itself still
41 uses the short names (as in the sample rule given above).
42
43 ** Variable api.namespace
44
45 The "namespace" variable is renamed "api.namespace". Backward
46 compatibility is ensured, but upgrading is recommended.
47
48 ** Variable parse.error
49
50 The variable error controls the verbosity of error messages. The
51 use of the %error-verbose directive is deprecated in favor of
52 %define parse.error "verbose".
53
54 ** Semantic predicates
55
56 The new, experimental, semantic-predicate feature allows actions of
57 the form %?{ BOOLEAN-EXPRESSION }, which cause syntax errors (as for
58 YYERROR) if the expression evaluates to 0, and are evaluated immediately
59 in GLR parsers, rather than being deferred. The result is that they
60 allow the programmer to prune possible parses based on the values of
61 runtime expressions.
62
63 * Changes in version 2.5.1 (????-??-??):
64
65 ** Minor improvements have been made to the manual.
66
67 * Changes in version 2.5 (2011-05-14):
68
69 ** Grammar symbol names can now contain non-initial dashes:
70
71 Consistently with directives (such as %error-verbose) and with
72 %define variables (e.g. push-pull), grammar symbol names may contain
73 dashes in any position except the beginning. This is a GNU
74 extension over POSIX Yacc. Thus, use of this extension is reported
75 by -Wyacc and rejected in Yacc mode (--yacc).
76
77 ** Named references:
78
79 Historically, Yacc and Bison have supported positional references
80 ($n, $$) to allow access to symbol values from inside of semantic
81 actions code.
82
83 Starting from this version, Bison can also accept named references.
84 When no ambiguity is possible, original symbol names may be used
85 as named references:
86
87 if_stmt : "if" cond_expr "then" then_stmt ';'
88 { $if_stmt = mk_if_stmt($cond_expr, $then_stmt); }
89
90 In the more common case, explicit names may be declared:
91
92 stmt[res] : "if" expr[cond] "then" stmt[then] "else" stmt[else] ';'
93 { $res = mk_if_stmt($cond, $then, $else); }
94
95 Location information is also accessible using @name syntax. When
96 accessing symbol names containing dots or dashes, explicit bracketing
97 ($[sym.1]) must be used.
98
99 These features are experimental in this version. More user feedback
100 will help to stabilize them.
101
102 ** IELR(1) and canonical LR(1):
103
104 IELR(1) is a minimal LR(1) parser table generation algorithm. That
105 is, given any context-free grammar, IELR(1) generates parser tables
106 with the full language-recognition power of canonical LR(1) but with
107 nearly the same number of parser states as LALR(1). This reduction
108 in parser states is often an order of magnitude. More importantly,
109 because canonical LR(1)'s extra parser states may contain duplicate
110 conflicts in the case of non-LR(1) grammars, the number of conflicts
111 for IELR(1) is often an order of magnitude less as well. This can
112 significantly reduce the complexity of developing of a grammar.
113
114 Bison can now generate IELR(1) and canonical LR(1) parser tables in
115 place of its traditional LALR(1) parser tables, which remain the
116 default. You can specify the type of parser tables in the grammar
117 file with these directives:
118
119 %define lr.type lalr
120 %define lr.type ielr
121 %define lr.type canonical-lr
122
123 The default-reduction optimization in the parser tables can also be
124 adjusted using `%define lr.default-reductions'. For details on both
125 of these features, see the new section `Tuning LR' in the Bison
126 manual.
127
128 These features are experimental. More user feedback will help to
129 stabilize them.
130
131 ** LAC (Lookahead Correction) for syntax error handling:
132
133 Canonical LR, IELR, and LALR can suffer from a couple of problems
134 upon encountering a syntax error. First, the parser might perform
135 additional parser stack reductions before discovering the syntax
136 error. Such reductions can perform user semantic actions that are
137 unexpected because they are based on an invalid token, and they
138 cause error recovery to begin in a different syntactic context than
139 the one in which the invalid token was encountered. Second, when
140 verbose error messages are enabled (with %error-verbose or the
141 obsolete `#define YYERROR_VERBOSE'), the expected token list in the
142 syntax error message can both contain invalid tokens and omit valid
143 tokens.
144
145 The culprits for the above problems are %nonassoc, default
146 reductions in inconsistent states, and parser state merging. Thus,
147 IELR and LALR suffer the most. Canonical LR can suffer only if
148 %nonassoc is used or if default reductions are enabled for
149 inconsistent states.
150
151 LAC is a new mechanism within the parsing algorithm that solves
152 these problems for canonical LR, IELR, and LALR without sacrificing
153 %nonassoc, default reductions, or state merging. When LAC is in
154 use, canonical LR and IELR behave almost exactly the same for both
155 syntactically acceptable and syntactically unacceptable input.
156 While LALR still does not support the full language-recognition
157 power of canonical LR and IELR, LAC at least enables LALR's syntax
158 error handling to correctly reflect LALR's language-recognition
159 power.
160
161 Currently, LAC is only supported for deterministic parsers in C.
162 You can enable LAC with the following directive:
163
164 %define parse.lac full
165
166 See the new section `LAC' in the Bison manual for additional
167 details including a few caveats.
168
169 LAC is an experimental feature. More user feedback will help to
170 stabilize it.
171
172 ** %define improvements:
173
174 *** Can now be invoked via the command line:
175
176 Each of these command-line options
177
178 -D NAME[=VALUE]
179 --define=NAME[=VALUE]
180
181 -F NAME[=VALUE]
182 --force-define=NAME[=VALUE]
183
184 is equivalent to this grammar file declaration
185
186 %define NAME ["VALUE"]
187
188 except that the manner in which Bison processes multiple definitions
189 for the same NAME differs. Most importantly, -F and --force-define
190 quietly override %define, but -D and --define do not. For further
191 details, see the section `Bison Options' in the Bison manual.
192
193 *** Variables renamed:
194
195 The following %define variables
196
197 api.push_pull
198 lr.keep_unreachable_states
199
200 have been renamed to
201
202 api.push-pull
203 lr.keep-unreachable-states
204
205 The old names are now deprecated but will be maintained indefinitely
206 for backward compatibility.
207
208 *** Values no longer need to be quoted in the grammar file:
209
210 If a %define value is an identifier, it no longer needs to be placed
211 within quotations marks. For example,
212
213 %define api.push-pull "push"
214
215 can be rewritten as
216
217 %define api.push-pull push
218
219 *** Unrecognized variables are now errors not warnings.
220
221 *** Multiple invocations for any variable is now an error not a warning.
222
223 ** Unrecognized %code qualifiers are now errors not warnings.
224
225 ** Character literals not of length one:
226
227 Previously, Bison quietly converted all character literals to length
228 one. For example, without warning, Bison interpreted the operators in
229 the following grammar to be the same token:
230
231 exp: exp '++'
232 | exp '+' exp
233 ;
234
235 Bison now warns when a character literal is not of length one. In
236 some future release, Bison will start reporting an error instead.
237
238 ** Destructor calls fixed for lookaheads altered in semantic actions:
239
240 Previously for deterministic parsers in C, if a user semantic action
241 altered yychar, the parser in some cases used the old yychar value to
242 determine which destructor to call for the lookahead upon a syntax
243 error or upon parser return. This bug has been fixed.
244
245 ** C++ parsers use YYRHSLOC:
246
247 Similarly to the C parsers, the C++ parsers now define the YYRHSLOC
248 macro and use it in the default YYLLOC_DEFAULT. You are encouraged
249 to use it. If, for instance, your location structure has `first'
250 and `last' members, instead of
251
252 # define YYLLOC_DEFAULT(Current, Rhs, N) \
253 do \
254 if (N) \
255 { \
256 (Current).first = (Rhs)[1].location.first; \
257 (Current).last = (Rhs)[N].location.last; \
258 } \
259 else \
260 { \
261 (Current).first = (Current).last = (Rhs)[0].location.last; \
262 } \
263 while (false)
264
265 use:
266
267 # define YYLLOC_DEFAULT(Current, Rhs, N) \
268 do \
269 if (N) \
270 { \
271 (Current).first = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, 1).first; \
272 (Current).last = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, N).last; \
273 } \
274 else \
275 { \
276 (Current).first = (Current).last = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, 0).last; \
277 } \
278 while (false)
279
280 ** YYLLOC_DEFAULT in C++:
281
282 The default implementation of YYLLOC_DEFAULT used to be issued in
283 the header file. It is now output in the implementation file, after
284 the user %code sections so that its #ifndef guard does not try to
285 override the user's YYLLOC_DEFAULT if provided.
286
287 ** YYFAIL now produces warnings and Java parsers no longer implement it:
288
289 YYFAIL has existed for many years as an undocumented feature of
290 deterministic parsers in C generated by Bison. More recently, it was
291 a documented feature of Bison's experimental Java parsers. As
292 promised in Bison 2.4.2's NEWS entry, any appearance of YYFAIL in a
293 semantic action now produces a deprecation warning, and Java parsers
294 no longer implement YYFAIL at all. For further details, including a
295 discussion of how to suppress C preprocessor warnings about YYFAIL
296 being unused, see the Bison 2.4.2 NEWS entry.
297
298 ** Temporary hack for adding a semicolon to the user action:
299
300 Previously, Bison appended a semicolon to every user action for
301 reductions when the output language defaulted to C (specifically, when
302 neither %yacc, %language, %skeleton, or equivalent command-line
303 options were specified). This allowed actions such as
304
305 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
306
307 instead of
308
309 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
310
311 As a first step in removing this misfeature, Bison now issues a
312 warning when it appends a semicolon. Moreover, in cases where Bison
313 cannot easily determine whether a semicolon is needed (for example, an
314 action ending with a cpp directive or a braced compound initializer),
315 it no longer appends one. Thus, the C compiler might now complain
316 about a missing semicolon where it did not before. Future releases of
317 Bison will cease to append semicolons entirely.
318
319 ** Verbose syntax error message fixes:
320
321 When %error-verbose or the obsolete `#define YYERROR_VERBOSE' is
322 specified, syntax error messages produced by the generated parser
323 include the unexpected token as well as a list of expected tokens.
324 The effect of %nonassoc on these verbose messages has been corrected
325 in two ways, but a more complete fix requires LAC, described above:
326
327 *** When %nonassoc is used, there can exist parser states that accept no
328 tokens, and so the parser does not always require a lookahead token
329 in order to detect a syntax error. Because no unexpected token or
330 expected tokens can then be reported, the verbose syntax error
331 message described above is suppressed, and the parser instead
332 reports the simpler message, `syntax error'. Previously, this
333 suppression was sometimes erroneously triggered by %nonassoc when a
334 lookahead was actually required. Now verbose messages are
335 suppressed only when all previous lookaheads have already been
336 shifted or discarded.
337
338 *** Previously, the list of expected tokens erroneously included tokens
339 that would actually induce a syntax error because conflicts for them
340 were resolved with %nonassoc in the current parser state. Such
341 tokens are now properly omitted from the list.
342
343 *** Expected token lists are still often wrong due to state merging
344 (from LALR or IELR) and default reductions, which can both add
345 invalid tokens and subtract valid tokens. Canonical LR almost
346 completely fixes this problem by eliminating state merging and
347 default reductions. However, there is one minor problem left even
348 when using canonical LR and even after the fixes above. That is,
349 if the resolution of a conflict with %nonassoc appears in a later
350 parser state than the one at which some syntax error is
351 discovered, the conflicted token is still erroneously included in
352 the expected token list. Bison's new LAC implementation,
353 described above, eliminates this problem and the need for
354 canonical LR. However, LAC is still experimental and is disabled
355 by default.
356
357 ** Java skeleton fixes:
358
359 *** A location handling bug has been fixed.
360
361 *** The top element of each of the value stack and location stack is now
362 cleared when popped so that it can be garbage collected.
363
364 *** Parser traces now print the top element of the stack.
365
366 ** -W/--warnings fixes:
367
368 *** Bison now properly recognizes the `no-' versions of categories:
369
370 For example, given the following command line, Bison now enables all
371 warnings except warnings for incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc:
372
373 bison -Wall,no-yacc gram.y
374
375 *** Bison now treats S/R and R/R conflicts like other warnings:
376
377 Previously, conflict reports were independent of Bison's normal
378 warning system. Now, Bison recognizes the warning categories
379 `conflicts-sr' and `conflicts-rr'. This change has important
380 consequences for the -W and --warnings command-line options. For
381 example:
382
383 bison -Wno-conflicts-sr gram.y # S/R conflicts not reported
384 bison -Wno-conflicts-rr gram.y # R/R conflicts not reported
385 bison -Wnone gram.y # no conflicts are reported
386 bison -Werror gram.y # any conflict is an error
387
388 However, as before, if the %expect or %expect-rr directive is
389 specified, an unexpected number of conflicts is an error, and an
390 expected number of conflicts is not reported, so -W and --warning
391 then have no effect on the conflict report.
392
393 *** The `none' category no longer disables a preceding `error':
394
395 For example, for the following command line, Bison now reports
396 errors instead of warnings for incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc:
397
398 bison -Werror,none,yacc gram.y
399
400 *** The `none' category now disables all Bison warnings:
401
402 Previously, the `none' category disabled only Bison warnings for
403 which there existed a specific -W/--warning category. However,
404 given the following command line, Bison is now guaranteed to
405 suppress all warnings:
406
407 bison -Wnone gram.y
408
409 ** Precedence directives can now assign token number 0:
410
411 Since Bison 2.3b, which restored the ability of precedence
412 directives to assign token numbers, doing so for token number 0 has
413 produced an assertion failure. For example:
414
415 %left END 0
416
417 This bug has been fixed.
418
419 * Changes in version 2.4.3 (2010-08-05):
420
421 ** Bison now obeys -Werror and --warnings=error for warnings about
422 grammar rules that are useless in the parser due to conflicts.
423
424 ** Problems with spawning M4 on at least FreeBSD 8 and FreeBSD 9 have
425 been fixed.
426
427 ** Failures in the test suite for GCC 4.5 have been fixed.
428
429 ** Failures in the test suite for some versions of Sun Studio C++ have
430 been fixed.
431
432 ** Contrary to Bison 2.4.2's NEWS entry, it has been decided that
433 warnings about undefined %prec identifiers will not be converted to
434 errors in Bison 2.5. They will remain warnings, which should be
435 sufficient for POSIX while avoiding backward compatibility issues.
436
437 ** Minor documentation fixes.
438
439 * Changes in version 2.4.2 (2010-03-20):
440
441 ** Some portability problems that resulted in failures and livelocks
442 in the test suite on some versions of at least Solaris, AIX, HP-UX,
443 RHEL4, and Tru64 have been addressed. As a result, fatal Bison
444 errors should no longer cause M4 to report a broken pipe on the
445 affected platforms.
446
447 ** `%prec IDENTIFIER' requires IDENTIFIER to be defined separately.
448
449 POSIX specifies that an error be reported for any identifier that does
450 not appear on the LHS of a grammar rule and that is not defined by
451 %token, %left, %right, or %nonassoc. Bison 2.3b and later lost this
452 error report for the case when an identifier appears only after a
453 %prec directive. It is now restored. However, for backward
454 compatibility with recent Bison releases, it is only a warning for
455 now. In Bison 2.5 and later, it will return to being an error.
456 [Between the 2.4.2 and 2.4.3 releases, it was decided that this
457 warning will not be converted to an error in Bison 2.5.]
458
459 ** Detection of GNU M4 1.4.6 or newer during configure is improved.
460
461 ** Warnings from gcc's -Wundef option about undefined YYENABLE_NLS,
462 YYLTYPE_IS_TRIVIAL, and __STRICT_ANSI__ in C/C++ parsers are now
463 avoided.
464
465 ** %code is now a permanent feature.
466
467 A traditional Yacc prologue directive is written in the form:
468
469 %{CODE%}
470
471 To provide a more flexible alternative, Bison 2.3b introduced the
472 %code directive with the following forms for C/C++:
473
474 %code {CODE}
475 %code requires {CODE}
476 %code provides {CODE}
477 %code top {CODE}
478
479 These forms are now considered permanent features of Bison. See the
480 %code entries in the section "Bison Declaration Summary" in the Bison
481 manual for a summary of their functionality. See the section
482 "Prologue Alternatives" for a detailed discussion including the
483 advantages of %code over the traditional Yacc prologue directive.
484
485 Bison's Java feature as a whole including its current usage of %code
486 is still considered experimental.
487
488 ** YYFAIL is deprecated and will eventually be removed.
489
490 YYFAIL has existed for many years as an undocumented feature of
491 deterministic parsers in C generated by Bison. Previously, it was
492 documented for Bison's experimental Java parsers. YYFAIL is no longer
493 documented for Java parsers and is formally deprecated in both cases.
494 Users are strongly encouraged to migrate to YYERROR, which is
495 specified by POSIX.
496
497 Like YYERROR, you can invoke YYFAIL from a semantic action in order to
498 induce a syntax error. The most obvious difference from YYERROR is
499 that YYFAIL will automatically invoke yyerror to report the syntax
500 error so that you don't have to. However, there are several other
501 subtle differences between YYERROR and YYFAIL, and YYFAIL suffers from
502 inherent flaws when %error-verbose or `#define YYERROR_VERBOSE' is
503 used. For a more detailed discussion, see:
504
505 http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bison-patches/2009-12/msg00024.html
506
507 The upcoming Bison 2.5 will remove YYFAIL from Java parsers, but
508 deterministic parsers in C will continue to implement it. However,
509 because YYFAIL is already flawed, it seems futile to try to make new
510 Bison features compatible with it. Thus, during parser generation,
511 Bison 2.5 will produce a warning whenever it discovers YYFAIL in a
512 rule action. In a later release, YYFAIL will be disabled for
513 %error-verbose and `#define YYERROR_VERBOSE'. Eventually, YYFAIL will
514 be removed altogether.
515
516 There exists at least one case where Bison 2.5's YYFAIL warning will
517 be a false positive. Some projects add phony uses of YYFAIL and other
518 Bison-defined macros for the sole purpose of suppressing C
519 preprocessor warnings (from GCC cpp's -Wunused-macros, for example).
520 To avoid Bison's future warning, such YYFAIL uses can be moved to the
521 epilogue (that is, after the second `%%') in the Bison input file. In
522 this release (2.4.2), Bison already generates its own code to suppress
523 C preprocessor warnings for YYFAIL, so projects can remove their own
524 phony uses of YYFAIL if compatibility with Bison releases prior to
525 2.4.2 is not necessary.
526
527 ** Internationalization.
528
529 Fix a regression introduced in Bison 2.4: Under some circumstances,
530 message translations were not installed although supported by the
531 host system.
532
533 * Changes in version 2.4.1 (2008-12-11):
534
535 ** In the GLR defines file, unexpanded M4 macros in the yylval and yylloc
536 declarations have been fixed.
537
538 ** Temporary hack for adding a semicolon to the user action.
539
540 Bison used to prepend a trailing semicolon at the end of the user
541 action for reductions. This allowed actions such as
542
543 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
544
545 instead of
546
547 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
548
549 Some grammars still depend on this `feature'. Bison 2.4.1 restores
550 the previous behavior in the case of C output (specifically, when
551 neither %language or %skeleton or equivalent command-line options
552 are used) to leave more time for grammars depending on the old
553 behavior to be adjusted. Future releases of Bison will disable this
554 feature.
555
556 ** A few minor improvements to the Bison manual.
557
558 * Changes in version 2.4 (2008-11-02):
559
560 ** %language is an experimental feature.
561
562 We first introduced this feature in test release 2.3b as a cleaner
563 alternative to %skeleton. Since then, we have discussed the possibility of
564 modifying its effect on Bison's output file names. Thus, in this release,
565 we consider %language to be an experimental feature that will likely evolve
566 in future releases.
567
568 ** Forward compatibility with GNU M4 has been improved.
569
570 ** Several bugs in the C++ skeleton and the experimental Java skeleton have been
571 fixed.
572
573 * Changes in version 2.3b (2008-05-27):
574
575 ** The quotes around NAME that used to be required in the following directive
576 are now deprecated:
577
578 %define NAME "VALUE"
579
580 ** The directive `%pure-parser' is now deprecated in favor of:
581
582 %define api.pure
583
584 which has the same effect except that Bison is more careful to warn about
585 unreasonable usage in the latter case.
586
587 ** Push Parsing
588
589 Bison can now generate an LALR(1) parser in C with a push interface. That
590 is, instead of invoking `yyparse', which pulls tokens from `yylex', you can
591 push one token at a time to the parser using `yypush_parse', which will
592 return to the caller after processing each token. By default, the push
593 interface is disabled. Either of the following directives will enable it:
594
595 %define api.push_pull "push" // Just push; does not require yylex.
596 %define api.push_pull "both" // Push and pull; requires yylex.
597
598 See the new section `A Push Parser' in the Bison manual for details.
599
600 The current push parsing interface is experimental and may evolve. More user
601 feedback will help to stabilize it.
602
603 ** The -g and --graph options now output graphs in Graphviz DOT format,
604 not VCG format. Like --graph, -g now also takes an optional FILE argument
605 and thus cannot be bundled with other short options.
606
607 ** Java
608
609 Bison can now generate an LALR(1) parser in Java. The skeleton is
610 `data/lalr1.java'. Consider using the new %language directive instead of
611 %skeleton to select it.
612
613 See the new section `Java Parsers' in the Bison manual for details.
614
615 The current Java interface is experimental and may evolve. More user
616 feedback will help to stabilize it.
617
618 ** %language
619
620 This new directive specifies the programming language of the generated
621 parser, which can be C (the default), C++, or Java. Besides the skeleton
622 that Bison uses, the directive affects the names of the generated files if
623 the grammar file's name ends in ".y".
624
625 ** XML Automaton Report
626
627 Bison can now generate an XML report of the LALR(1) automaton using the new
628 `--xml' option. The current XML schema is experimental and may evolve. More
629 user feedback will help to stabilize it.
630
631 ** The grammar file may now specify the name of the parser header file using
632 %defines. For example:
633
634 %defines "parser.h"
635
636 ** When reporting useless rules, useless nonterminals, and unused terminals,
637 Bison now employs the terms "useless in grammar" instead of "useless",
638 "useless in parser" instead of "never reduced", and "unused in grammar"
639 instead of "unused".
640
641 ** Unreachable State Removal
642
643 Previously, Bison sometimes generated parser tables containing unreachable
644 states. A state can become unreachable during conflict resolution if Bison
645 disables a shift action leading to it from a predecessor state. Bison now:
646
647 1. Removes unreachable states.
648
649 2. Does not report any conflicts that appeared in unreachable states.
650 WARNING: As a result, you may need to update %expect and %expect-rr
651 directives in existing grammar files.
652
653 3. For any rule used only in such states, Bison now reports the rule as
654 "useless in parser due to conflicts".
655
656 This feature can be disabled with the following directive:
657
658 %define lr.keep_unreachable_states
659
660 See the %define entry in the `Bison Declaration Summary' in the Bison manual
661 for further discussion.
662
663 ** Lookahead Set Correction in the `.output' Report
664
665 When instructed to generate a `.output' file including lookahead sets
666 (using `--report=lookahead', for example), Bison now prints each reduction's
667 lookahead set only next to the associated state's one item that (1) is
668 associated with the same rule as the reduction and (2) has its dot at the end
669 of its RHS. Previously, Bison also erroneously printed the lookahead set
670 next to all of the state's other items associated with the same rule. This
671 bug affected only the `.output' file and not the generated parser source
672 code.
673
674 ** --report-file=FILE is a new option to override the default `.output' file
675 name.
676
677 ** The `=' that used to be required in the following directives is now
678 deprecated:
679
680 %file-prefix "parser"
681 %name-prefix "c_"
682 %output "parser.c"
683
684 ** An Alternative to `%{...%}' -- `%code QUALIFIER {CODE}'
685
686 Bison 2.3a provided a new set of directives as a more flexible alternative to
687 the traditional Yacc prologue blocks. Those have now been consolidated into
688 a single %code directive with an optional qualifier field, which identifies
689 the purpose of the code and thus the location(s) where Bison should generate
690 it:
691
692 1. `%code {CODE}' replaces `%after-header {CODE}'
693 2. `%code requires {CODE}' replaces `%start-header {CODE}'
694 3. `%code provides {CODE}' replaces `%end-header {CODE}'
695 4. `%code top {CODE}' replaces `%before-header {CODE}'
696
697 See the %code entries in section `Bison Declaration Summary' in the Bison
698 manual for a summary of the new functionality. See the new section `Prologue
699 Alternatives' for a detailed discussion including the advantages of %code
700 over the traditional Yacc prologues.
701
702 The prologue alternatives are experimental. More user feedback will help to
703 determine whether they should become permanent features.
704
705 ** Revised warning: unset or unused mid-rule values
706
707 Since Bison 2.2, Bison has warned about mid-rule values that are set but not
708 used within any of the actions of the parent rule. For example, Bison warns
709 about unused $2 in:
710
711 exp: '1' { $$ = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $1 + $4; };
712
713 Now, Bison also warns about mid-rule values that are used but not set. For
714 example, Bison warns about unset $$ in the mid-rule action in:
715
716 exp: '1' { $1 = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $2 + $4; };
717
718 However, Bison now disables both of these warnings by default since they
719 sometimes prove to be false alarms in existing grammars employing the Yacc
720 constructs $0 or $-N (where N is some positive integer).
721
722 To enable these warnings, specify the option `--warnings=midrule-values' or
723 `-W', which is a synonym for `--warnings=all'.
724
725 ** Default %destructor or %printer with `<*>' or `<>'
726
727 Bison now recognizes two separate kinds of default %destructor's and
728 %printer's:
729
730 1. Place `<*>' in a %destructor/%printer symbol list to define a default
731 %destructor/%printer for all grammar symbols for which you have formally
732 declared semantic type tags.
733
734 2. Place `<>' in a %destructor/%printer symbol list to define a default
735 %destructor/%printer for all grammar symbols without declared semantic
736 type tags.
737
738 Bison no longer supports the `%symbol-default' notation from Bison 2.3a.
739 `<*>' and `<>' combined achieve the same effect with one exception: Bison no
740 longer applies any %destructor to a mid-rule value if that mid-rule value is
741 not actually ever referenced using either $$ or $n in a semantic action.
742
743 The default %destructor's and %printer's are experimental. More user
744 feedback will help to determine whether they should become permanent
745 features.
746
747 See the section `Freeing Discarded Symbols' in the Bison manual for further
748 details.
749
750 ** %left, %right, and %nonassoc can now declare token numbers. This is required
751 by POSIX. However, see the end of section `Operator Precedence' in the Bison
752 manual for a caveat concerning the treatment of literal strings.
753
754 ** The nonfunctional --no-parser, -n, and %no-parser options have been
755 completely removed from Bison.
756
757 * Changes in version 2.3a, 2006-09-13:
758
759 ** Instead of %union, you can define and use your own union type
760 YYSTYPE if your grammar contains at least one <type> tag.
761 Your YYSTYPE need not be a macro; it can be a typedef.
762 This change is for compatibility with other Yacc implementations,
763 and is required by POSIX.
764
765 ** Locations columns and lines start at 1.
766 In accordance with the GNU Coding Standards and Emacs.
767
768 ** You may now declare per-type and default %destructor's and %printer's:
769
770 For example:
771
772 %union { char *string; }
773 %token <string> STRING1
774 %token <string> STRING2
775 %type <string> string1
776 %type <string> string2
777 %union { char character; }
778 %token <character> CHR
779 %type <character> chr
780 %destructor { free ($$); } %symbol-default
781 %destructor { free ($$); printf ("%d", @$.first_line); } STRING1 string1
782 %destructor { } <character>
783
784 guarantees that, when the parser discards any user-defined symbol that has a
785 semantic type tag other than `<character>', it passes its semantic value to
786 `free'. However, when the parser discards a `STRING1' or a `string1', it
787 also prints its line number to `stdout'. It performs only the second
788 `%destructor' in this case, so it invokes `free' only once.
789
790 [Although we failed to mention this here in the 2.3a release, the default
791 %destructor's and %printer's were experimental, and they were rewritten in
792 future versions.]
793
794 ** Except for LALR(1) parsers in C with POSIX Yacc emulation enabled (with `-y',
795 `--yacc', or `%yacc'), Bison no longer generates #define statements for
796 associating token numbers with token names. Removing the #define statements
797 helps to sanitize the global namespace during preprocessing, but POSIX Yacc
798 requires them. Bison still generates an enum for token names in all cases.
799
800 ** Handling of traditional Yacc prologue blocks is now more consistent but
801 potentially incompatible with previous releases of Bison.
802
803 As before, you declare prologue blocks in your grammar file with the
804 `%{ ... %}' syntax. To generate the pre-prologue, Bison concatenates all
805 prologue blocks that you've declared before the first %union. To generate
806 the post-prologue, Bison concatenates all prologue blocks that you've
807 declared after the first %union.
808
809 Previous releases of Bison inserted the pre-prologue into both the header
810 file and the code file in all cases except for LALR(1) parsers in C. In the
811 latter case, Bison inserted it only into the code file. For parsers in C++,
812 the point of insertion was before any token definitions (which associate
813 token numbers with names). For parsers in C, the point of insertion was
814 after the token definitions.
815
816 Now, Bison never inserts the pre-prologue into the header file. In the code
817 file, it always inserts it before the token definitions.
818
819 ** Bison now provides a more flexible alternative to the traditional Yacc
820 prologue blocks: %before-header, %start-header, %end-header, and
821 %after-header.
822
823 For example, the following declaration order in the grammar file reflects the
824 order in which Bison will output these code blocks. However, you are free to
825 declare these code blocks in your grammar file in whatever order is most
826 convenient for you:
827
828 %before-header {
829 /* Bison treats this block like a pre-prologue block: it inserts it into
830 * the code file before the contents of the header file. It does *not*
831 * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to put
832 * #include's that you want at the top of your code file. A common
833 * example is `#include "system.h"'. */
834 }
835 %start-header {
836 /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file.
837 * In both files, the point of insertion is before any Bison-generated
838 * token, semantic type, location type, and class definitions. This is a
839 * good place to define %union dependencies, for example. */
840 }
841 %union {
842 /* Unlike the traditional Yacc prologue blocks, the output order for the
843 * new %*-header blocks is not affected by their declaration position
844 * relative to any %union in the grammar file. */
845 }
846 %end-header {
847 /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file.
848 * In both files, the point of insertion is after the Bison-generated
849 * definitions. This is a good place to declare or define public
850 * functions or data structures that depend on the Bison-generated
851 * definitions. */
852 }
853 %after-header {
854 /* Bison treats this block like a post-prologue block: it inserts it into
855 * the code file after the contents of the header file. It does *not*
856 * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to declare or
857 * define internal functions or data structures that depend on the
858 * Bison-generated definitions. */
859 }
860
861 If you have multiple occurrences of any one of the above declarations, Bison
862 will concatenate the contents in declaration order.
863
864 [Although we failed to mention this here in the 2.3a release, the prologue
865 alternatives were experimental, and they were rewritten in future versions.]
866
867 ** The option `--report=look-ahead' has been changed to `--report=lookahead'.
868 The old spelling still works, but is not documented and may be removed
869 in a future release.
870
871 * Changes in version 2.3, 2006-06-05:
872
873 ** GLR grammars should now use `YYRECOVERING ()' instead of `YYRECOVERING',
874 for compatibility with LALR(1) grammars.
875
876 ** It is now documented that any definition of YYSTYPE or YYLTYPE should
877 be to a type name that does not contain parentheses or brackets.
878
879 * Changes in version 2.2, 2006-05-19:
880
881 ** The distribution terms for all Bison-generated parsers now permit
882 using the parsers in nonfree programs. Previously, this permission
883 was granted only for Bison-generated LALR(1) parsers in C.
884
885 ** %name-prefix changes the namespace name in C++ outputs.
886
887 ** The C++ parsers export their token_type.
888
889 ** Bison now allows multiple %union declarations, and concatenates
890 their contents together.
891
892 ** New warning: unused values
893 Right-hand side symbols whose values are not used are reported,
894 if the symbols have destructors. For instance:
895
896 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; }
897 | exp "+" exp
898 ;
899
900 will trigger a warning about $$ and $5 in the first rule, and $3 in
901 the second ($1 is copied to $$ by the default rule). This example
902 most likely contains three errors, and could be rewritten as:
903
904 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp
905 { $$ = $1 ? $3 : $5; free ($1 ? $5 : $3); free ($1); }
906 | exp "+" exp
907 { $$ = $1 ? $1 : $3; if ($1) free ($3); }
908 ;
909
910 However, if the original actions were really intended, memory leaks
911 and all, the warnings can be suppressed by letting Bison believe the
912 values are used, e.g.:
913
914 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; (void) ($$, $5); }
915 | exp "+" exp { $$ = $1; (void) $3; }
916 ;
917
918 If there are mid-rule actions, the warning is issued if no action
919 uses it. The following triggers no warning: $1 and $3 are used.
920
921 exp: exp { push ($1); } '+' exp { push ($3); sum (); };
922
923 The warning is intended to help catching lost values and memory leaks.
924 If a value is ignored, its associated memory typically is not reclaimed.
925
926 ** %destructor vs. YYABORT, YYACCEPT, and YYERROR.
927 Destructors are now called when user code invokes YYABORT, YYACCEPT,
928 and YYERROR, for all objects on the stack, other than objects
929 corresponding to the right-hand side of the current rule.
930
931 ** %expect, %expect-rr
932 Incorrect numbers of expected conflicts are now actual errors,
933 instead of warnings.
934
935 ** GLR, YACC parsers.
936 The %parse-params are available in the destructors (and the
937 experimental printers) as per the documentation.
938
939 ** Bison now warns if it finds a stray `$' or `@' in an action.
940
941 ** %require "VERSION"
942 This specifies that the grammar file depends on features implemented
943 in Bison version VERSION or higher.
944
945 ** lalr1.cc: The token and value types are now class members.
946 The tokens were defined as free form enums and cpp macros. YYSTYPE
947 was defined as a free form union. They are now class members:
948 tokens are enumerations of the `yy::parser::token' struct, and the
949 semantic values have the `yy::parser::semantic_type' type.
950
951 If you do not want or can update to this scheme, the directive
952 `%define "global_tokens_and_yystype" "1"' triggers the global
953 definition of tokens and YYSTYPE. This change is suitable both
954 for previous releases of Bison, and this one.
955
956 If you wish to update, then make sure older version of Bison will
957 fail using `%require "2.2"'.
958
959 ** DJGPP support added.
960 \f
961 * Changes in version 2.1, 2005-09-16:
962
963 ** The C++ lalr1.cc skeleton supports %lex-param.
964
965 ** Bison-generated parsers now support the translation of diagnostics like
966 "syntax error" into languages other than English. The default
967 language is still English. For details, please see the new
968 Internationalization section of the Bison manual. Software
969 distributors should also see the new PACKAGING file. Thanks to
970 Bruno Haible for this new feature.
971
972 ** Wording in the Bison-generated parsers has been changed slightly to
973 simplify translation. In particular, the message "memory exhausted"
974 has replaced "parser stack overflow", as the old message was not
975 always accurate for modern Bison-generated parsers.
976
977 ** Destructors are now called when the parser aborts, for all symbols left
978 behind on the stack. Also, the start symbol is now destroyed after a
979 successful parse. In both cases, the behavior was formerly inconsistent.
980
981 ** When generating verbose diagnostics, Bison-generated parsers no longer
982 quote the literal strings associated with tokens. For example, for
983 a syntax error associated with '%token NUM "number"' they might
984 print 'syntax error, unexpected number' instead of 'syntax error,
985 unexpected "number"'.
986 \f
987 * Changes in version 2.0, 2004-12-25:
988
989 ** Possibly-incompatible changes
990
991 - Bison-generated parsers no longer default to using the alloca function
992 (when available) to extend the parser stack, due to widespread
993 problems in unchecked stack-overflow detection. You can "#define
994 YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA 1" to require the use of alloca, but please read
995 the manual to determine safe values for YYMAXDEPTH in that case.
996
997 - Error token location.
998 During error recovery, the location of the syntax error is updated
999 to cover the whole sequence covered by the error token: it includes
1000 the shifted symbols thrown away during the first part of the error
1001 recovery, and the lookahead rejected during the second part.
1002
1003 - Semicolon changes:
1004 . Stray semicolons are no longer allowed at the start of a grammar.
1005 . Semicolons are now required after in-grammar declarations.
1006
1007 - Unescaped newlines are no longer allowed in character constants or
1008 string literals. They were never portable, and GCC 3.4.0 has
1009 dropped support for them. Better diagnostics are now generated if
1010 forget a closing quote.
1011
1012 - NUL bytes are no longer allowed in Bison string literals, unfortunately.
1013
1014 ** New features
1015
1016 - GLR grammars now support locations.
1017
1018 - New directive: %initial-action.
1019 This directive allows the user to run arbitrary code (including
1020 initializing @$) from yyparse before parsing starts.
1021
1022 - A new directive "%expect-rr N" specifies the expected number of
1023 reduce/reduce conflicts in GLR parsers.
1024
1025 - %token numbers can now be hexadecimal integers, e.g., `%token FOO 0x12d'.
1026 This is a GNU extension.
1027
1028 - The option `--report=lookahead' was changed to `--report=look-ahead'.
1029 [However, this was changed back after 2.3.]
1030
1031 - Experimental %destructor support has been added to lalr1.cc.
1032
1033 - New configure option --disable-yacc, to disable installation of the
1034 yacc command and -ly library introduced in 1.875 for POSIX conformance.
1035
1036 ** Bug fixes
1037
1038 - For now, %expect-count violations are now just warnings, not errors.
1039 This is for compatibility with Bison 1.75 and earlier (when there are
1040 reduce/reduce conflicts) and with Bison 1.30 and earlier (when there
1041 are too many or too few shift/reduce conflicts). However, in future
1042 versions of Bison we plan to improve the %expect machinery so that
1043 these violations will become errors again.
1044
1045 - Within Bison itself, numbers (e.g., goto numbers) are no longer
1046 arbitrarily limited to 16-bit counts.
1047
1048 - Semicolons are now allowed before "|" in grammar rules, as POSIX requires.
1049 \f
1050 * Changes in version 1.875, 2003-01-01:
1051
1052 ** The documentation license has been upgraded to version 1.2
1053 of the GNU Free Documentation License.
1054
1055 ** syntax error processing
1056
1057 - In Yacc-style parsers YYLLOC_DEFAULT is now used to compute error
1058 locations too. This fixes bugs in error-location computation.
1059
1060 - %destructor
1061 It is now possible to reclaim the memory associated to symbols
1062 discarded during error recovery. This feature is still experimental.
1063
1064 - %error-verbose
1065 This new directive is preferred over YYERROR_VERBOSE.
1066
1067 - #defining yyerror to steal internal variables is discouraged.
1068 It is not guaranteed to work forever.
1069
1070 ** POSIX conformance
1071
1072 - Semicolons are once again optional at the end of grammar rules.
1073 This reverts to the behavior of Bison 1.33 and earlier, and improves
1074 compatibility with Yacc.
1075
1076 - `parse error' -> `syntax error'
1077 Bison now uniformly uses the term `syntax error'; formerly, the code
1078 and manual sometimes used the term `parse error' instead. POSIX
1079 requires `syntax error' in diagnostics, and it was thought better to
1080 be consistent.
1081
1082 - The documentation now emphasizes that yylex and yyerror must be
1083 declared before use. C99 requires this.
1084
1085 - Bison now parses C99 lexical constructs like UCNs and
1086 backslash-newline within C escape sequences, as POSIX 1003.1-2001 requires.
1087
1088 - File names are properly escaped in C output. E.g., foo\bar.y is
1089 output as "foo\\bar.y".
1090
1091 - Yacc command and library now available
1092 The Bison distribution now installs a `yacc' command, as POSIX requires.
1093 Also, Bison now installs a small library liby.a containing
1094 implementations of Yacc-compatible yyerror and main functions.
1095 This library is normally not useful, but POSIX requires it.
1096
1097 - Type clashes now generate warnings, not errors.
1098
1099 - If the user does not define YYSTYPE as a macro, Bison now declares it
1100 using typedef instead of defining it as a macro.
1101 For consistency, YYLTYPE is also declared instead of defined.
1102
1103 ** Other compatibility issues
1104
1105 - %union directives can now have a tag before the `{', e.g., the
1106 directive `%union foo {...}' now generates the C code
1107 `typedef union foo { ... } YYSTYPE;'; this is for Yacc compatibility.
1108 The default union tag is `YYSTYPE', for compatibility with Solaris 9 Yacc.
1109 For consistency, YYLTYPE's struct tag is now `YYLTYPE' not `yyltype'.
1110 This is for compatibility with both Yacc and Bison 1.35.
1111
1112 - `;' is output before the terminating `}' of an action, for
1113 compatibility with Bison 1.35.
1114
1115 - Bison now uses a Yacc-style format for conflict reports, e.g.,
1116 `conflicts: 2 shift/reduce, 1 reduce/reduce'.
1117
1118 - `yystype' and `yyltype' are now obsolescent macros instead of being
1119 typedefs or tags; they are no longer documented and are planned to be
1120 withdrawn in a future release.
1121
1122 ** GLR parser notes
1123
1124 - GLR and inline
1125 Users of Bison have to decide how they handle the portability of the
1126 C keyword `inline'.
1127
1128 - `parsing stack overflow...' -> `parser stack overflow'
1129 GLR parsers now report `parser stack overflow' as per the Bison manual.
1130
1131 ** Bison now warns if it detects conflicting outputs to the same file,
1132 e.g., it generates a warning for `bison -d -o foo.h foo.y' since
1133 that command outputs both code and header to foo.h.
1134
1135 ** #line in output files
1136 - --no-line works properly.
1137
1138 ** Bison can no longer be built by a K&R C compiler; it requires C89 or
1139 later to be built. This change originally took place a few versions
1140 ago, but nobody noticed until we recently asked someone to try
1141 building Bison with a K&R C compiler.
1142 \f
1143 * Changes in version 1.75, 2002-10-14:
1144
1145 ** Bison should now work on 64-bit hosts.
1146
1147 ** Indonesian translation thanks to Tedi Heriyanto.
1148
1149 ** GLR parsers
1150 Fix spurious parse errors.
1151
1152 ** Pure parsers
1153 Some people redefine yyerror to steal yyparse' private variables.
1154 Reenable this trick until an official feature replaces it.
1155
1156 ** Type Clashes
1157 In agreement with POSIX and with other Yaccs, leaving a default
1158 action is valid when $$ is untyped, and $1 typed:
1159
1160 untyped: ... typed;
1161
1162 but the converse remains an error:
1163
1164 typed: ... untyped;
1165
1166 ** Values of mid-rule actions
1167 The following code:
1168
1169 foo: { ... } { $$ = $1; } ...
1170
1171 was incorrectly rejected: $1 is defined in the second mid-rule
1172 action, and is equal to the $$ of the first mid-rule action.
1173 \f
1174 * Changes in version 1.50, 2002-10-04:
1175
1176 ** GLR parsing
1177 The declaration
1178 %glr-parser
1179 causes Bison to produce a Generalized LR (GLR) parser, capable of handling
1180 almost any context-free grammar, ambiguous or not. The new declarations
1181 %dprec and %merge on grammar rules allow parse-time resolution of
1182 ambiguities. Contributed by Paul Hilfinger.
1183
1184 Unfortunately Bison 1.50 does not work properly on 64-bit hosts
1185 like the Alpha, so please stick to 32-bit hosts for now.
1186
1187 ** Output Directory
1188 When not in Yacc compatibility mode, when the output file was not
1189 specified, running `bison foo/bar.y' created `foo/bar.c'. It
1190 now creates `bar.c'.
1191
1192 ** Undefined token
1193 The undefined token was systematically mapped to 2 which prevented
1194 the use of 2 by the user. This is no longer the case.
1195
1196 ** Unknown token numbers
1197 If yylex returned an out of range value, yyparse could die. This is
1198 no longer the case.
1199
1200 ** Error token
1201 According to POSIX, the error token must be 256.
1202 Bison extends this requirement by making it a preference: *if* the
1203 user specified that one of her tokens is numbered 256, then error
1204 will be mapped onto another number.
1205
1206 ** Verbose error messages
1207 They no longer report `..., expecting error or...' for states where
1208 error recovery is possible.
1209
1210 ** End token
1211 Defaults to `$end' instead of `$'.
1212
1213 ** Error recovery now conforms to documentation and to POSIX
1214 When a Bison-generated parser encounters a syntax error, it now pops
1215 the stack until it finds a state that allows shifting the error
1216 token. Formerly, it popped the stack until it found a state that
1217 allowed some non-error action other than a default reduction on the
1218 error token. The new behavior has long been the documented behavior,
1219 and has long been required by POSIX. For more details, please see
1220 Paul Eggert, "Reductions during Bison error handling" (2002-05-20)
1221 <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-bison/2002-05/msg00038.html>.
1222
1223 ** Traces
1224 Popped tokens and nonterminals are now reported.
1225
1226 ** Larger grammars
1227 Larger grammars are now supported (larger token numbers, larger grammar
1228 size (= sum of the LHS and RHS lengths), larger LALR tables).
1229 Formerly, many of these numbers ran afoul of 16-bit limits;
1230 now these limits are 32 bits on most hosts.
1231
1232 ** Explicit initial rule
1233 Bison used to play hacks with the initial rule, which the user does
1234 not write. It is now explicit, and visible in the reports and
1235 graphs as rule 0.
1236
1237 ** Useless rules
1238 Before, Bison reported the useless rules, but, although not used,
1239 included them in the parsers. They are now actually removed.
1240
1241 ** Useless rules, useless nonterminals
1242 They are now reported, as a warning, with their locations.
1243
1244 ** Rules never reduced
1245 Rules that can never be reduced because of conflicts are now
1246 reported.
1247
1248 ** Incorrect `Token not used'
1249 On a grammar such as
1250
1251 %token useless useful
1252 %%
1253 exp: '0' %prec useful;
1254
1255 where a token was used to set the precedence of the last rule,
1256 bison reported both `useful' and `useless' as useless tokens.
1257
1258 ** Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31
1259 as they caused too many portability hassles.
1260
1261 ** Default locations
1262 By an accident of design, the default computation of @$ was
1263 performed after another default computation was performed: @$ = @1.
1264 The latter is now removed: YYLLOC_DEFAULT is fully responsible of
1265 the computation of @$.
1266
1267 ** Token end-of-file
1268 The token end of file may be specified by the user, in which case,
1269 the user symbol is used in the reports, the graphs, and the verbose
1270 error messages instead of `$end', which remains being the default.
1271 For instance
1272 %token MYEOF 0
1273 or
1274 %token MYEOF 0 "end of file"
1275
1276 ** Semantic parser
1277 This old option, which has been broken for ages, is removed.
1278
1279 ** New translations
1280 Brazilian Portuguese, thanks to Alexandre Folle de Menezes.
1281 Croatian, thanks to Denis Lackovic.
1282
1283 ** Incorrect token definitions
1284 When given `%token 'a' "A"', Bison used to output `#define 'a' 65'.
1285
1286 ** Token definitions as enums
1287 Tokens are output both as the traditional #define's, and, provided
1288 the compiler supports ANSI C or is a C++ compiler, as enums.
1289 This lets debuggers display names instead of integers.
1290
1291 ** Reports
1292 In addition to --verbose, bison supports --report=THINGS, which
1293 produces additional information:
1294 - itemset
1295 complete the core item sets with their closure
1296 - lookahead [changed to `look-ahead' in 1.875e through 2.3, but changed back]
1297 explicitly associate lookahead tokens to items
1298 - solved
1299 describe shift/reduce conflicts solving.
1300 Bison used to systematically output this information on top of
1301 the report. Solved conflicts are now attached to their states.
1302
1303 ** Type clashes
1304 Previous versions don't complain when there is a type clash on
1305 the default action if the rule has a mid-rule action, such as in:
1306
1307 %type <foo> bar
1308 %%
1309 bar: '0' {} '0';
1310
1311 This is fixed.
1312
1313 ** GNU M4 is now required when using Bison.
1314 \f
1315 * Changes in version 1.35, 2002-03-25:
1316
1317 ** C Skeleton
1318 Some projects use Bison's C parser with C++ compilers, and define
1319 YYSTYPE as a class. The recent adjustment of C parsers for data
1320 alignment and 64 bit architectures made this impossible.
1321
1322 Because for the time being no real solution for C++ parser
1323 generation exists, kludges were implemented in the parser to
1324 maintain this use. In the future, when Bison has C++ parsers, this
1325 kludge will be disabled.
1326
1327 This kludge also addresses some C++ problems when the stack was
1328 extended.
1329 \f
1330 * Changes in version 1.34, 2002-03-12:
1331
1332 ** File name clashes are detected
1333 $ bison foo.y -d -o foo.x
1334 fatal error: header and parser would both be named `foo.x'
1335
1336 ** A missing `;' at the end of a rule triggers a warning
1337 In accordance with POSIX, and in agreement with other
1338 Yacc implementations, Bison will mandate this semicolon in the near
1339 future. This eases the implementation of a Bison parser of Bison
1340 grammars by making this grammar LALR(1) instead of LR(2). To
1341 facilitate the transition, this release introduces a warning.
1342
1343 ** Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31, as they caused too
1344 many portability hassles.
1345
1346 ** DJGPP support added.
1347
1348 ** Fix test suite portability problems.
1349 \f
1350 * Changes in version 1.33, 2002-02-07:
1351
1352 ** Fix C++ issues
1353 Groff could not be compiled for the definition of size_t was lacking
1354 under some conditions.
1355
1356 ** Catch invalid @n
1357 As is done with $n.
1358 \f
1359 * Changes in version 1.32, 2002-01-23:
1360
1361 ** Fix Yacc output file names
1362
1363 ** Portability fixes
1364
1365 ** Italian, Dutch translations
1366 \f
1367 * Changes in version 1.31, 2002-01-14:
1368
1369 ** Many Bug Fixes
1370
1371 ** GNU Gettext and %expect
1372 GNU Gettext asserts 10 s/r conflicts, but there are 7. Now that
1373 Bison dies on incorrect %expectations, we fear there will be
1374 too many bug reports for Gettext, so _for the time being_, %expect
1375 does not trigger an error when the input file is named `plural.y'.
1376
1377 ** Use of alloca in parsers
1378 If YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA is defined to 0, then the parsers will use
1379 malloc exclusively. Since 1.29, but was not NEWS'ed.
1380
1381 alloca is used only when compiled with GCC, to avoid portability
1382 problems as on AIX.
1383
1384 ** yyparse now returns 2 if memory is exhausted; formerly it dumped core.
1385
1386 ** When the generated parser lacks debugging code, YYDEBUG is now 0
1387 (as POSIX requires) instead of being undefined.
1388
1389 ** User Actions
1390 Bison has always permitted actions such as { $$ = $1 }: it adds the
1391 ending semicolon. Now if in Yacc compatibility mode, the semicolon
1392 is no longer output: one has to write { $$ = $1; }.
1393
1394 ** Better C++ compliance
1395 The output parsers try to respect C++ namespaces.
1396 [This turned out to be a failed experiment, and it was reverted later.]
1397
1398 ** Reduced Grammars
1399 Fixed bugs when reporting useless nonterminals.
1400
1401 ** 64 bit hosts
1402 The parsers work properly on 64 bit hosts.
1403
1404 ** Error messages
1405 Some calls to strerror resulted in scrambled or missing error messages.
1406
1407 ** %expect
1408 When the number of shift/reduce conflicts is correct, don't issue
1409 any warning.
1410
1411 ** The verbose report includes the rule line numbers.
1412
1413 ** Rule line numbers are fixed in traces.
1414
1415 ** Swedish translation
1416
1417 ** Parse errors
1418 Verbose parse error messages from the parsers are better looking.
1419 Before: parse error: unexpected `'/'', expecting `"number"' or `'-'' or `'(''
1420 Now: parse error: unexpected '/', expecting "number" or '-' or '('
1421
1422 ** Fixed parser memory leaks.
1423 When the generated parser was using malloc to extend its stacks, the
1424 previous allocations were not freed.
1425
1426 ** Fixed verbose output file.
1427 Some newlines were missing.
1428 Some conflicts in state descriptions were missing.
1429
1430 ** Fixed conflict report.
1431 Option -v was needed to get the result.
1432
1433 ** %expect
1434 Was not used.
1435 Mismatches are errors, not warnings.
1436
1437 ** Fixed incorrect processing of some invalid input.
1438
1439 ** Fixed CPP guards: 9foo.h uses BISON_9FOO_H instead of 9FOO_H.
1440
1441 ** Fixed some typos in the documentation.
1442
1443 ** %token MY_EOF 0 is supported.
1444 Before, MY_EOF was silently renumbered as 257.
1445
1446 ** doc/refcard.tex is updated.
1447
1448 ** %output, %file-prefix, %name-prefix.
1449 New.
1450
1451 ** --output
1452 New, aliasing `--output-file'.
1453 \f
1454 * Changes in version 1.30, 2001-10-26:
1455
1456 ** `--defines' and `--graph' have now an optional argument which is the
1457 output file name. `-d' and `-g' do not change; they do not take any
1458 argument.
1459
1460 ** `%source_extension' and `%header_extension' are removed, failed
1461 experiment.
1462
1463 ** Portability fixes.
1464 \f
1465 * Changes in version 1.29, 2001-09-07:
1466
1467 ** The output file does not define const, as this caused problems when used
1468 with common autoconfiguration schemes. If you still use ancient compilers
1469 that lack const, compile with the equivalent of the C compiler option
1470 `-Dconst='. autoconf's AC_C_CONST macro provides one way to do this.
1471
1472 ** Added `-g' and `--graph'.
1473
1474 ** The Bison manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL.
1475
1476 ** The input and the output files has automatically a similar extension.
1477
1478 ** Russian translation added.
1479
1480 ** NLS support updated; should hopefully be less troublesome.
1481
1482 ** Added the old Bison reference card.
1483
1484 ** Added `--locations' and `%locations'.
1485
1486 ** Added `-S' and `--skeleton'.
1487
1488 ** `%raw', `-r', `--raw' is disabled.
1489
1490 ** Special characters are escaped when output. This solves the problems
1491 of the #line lines with path names including backslashes.
1492
1493 ** New directives.
1494 `%yacc', `%fixed_output_files', `%defines', `%no_parser', `%verbose',
1495 `%debug', `%source_extension' and `%header_extension'.
1496
1497 ** @$
1498 Automatic location tracking.
1499 \f
1500 * Changes in version 1.28, 1999-07-06:
1501
1502 ** Should compile better now with K&R compilers.
1503
1504 ** Added NLS.
1505
1506 ** Fixed a problem with escaping the double quote character.
1507
1508 ** There is now a FAQ.
1509 \f
1510 * Changes in version 1.27:
1511
1512 ** The make rule which prevented bison.simple from being created on
1513 some systems has been fixed.
1514 \f
1515 * Changes in version 1.26:
1516
1517 ** Bison now uses automake.
1518
1519 ** New mailing lists: <bug-bison@gnu.org> and <help-bison@gnu.org>.
1520
1521 ** Token numbers now start at 257 as previously documented, not 258.
1522
1523 ** Bison honors the TMPDIR environment variable.
1524
1525 ** A couple of buffer overruns have been fixed.
1526
1527 ** Problems when closing files should now be reported.
1528
1529 ** Generated parsers should now work even on operating systems which do
1530 not provide alloca().
1531 \f
1532 * Changes in version 1.25, 1995-10-16:
1533
1534 ** Errors in the input grammar are not fatal; Bison keeps reading
1535 the grammar file, and reports all the errors found in it.
1536
1537 ** Tokens can now be specified as multiple-character strings: for
1538 example, you could use "<=" for a token which looks like <=, instead
1539 of chosing a name like LESSEQ.
1540
1541 ** The %token_table declaration says to write a table of tokens (names
1542 and numbers) into the parser file. The yylex function can use this
1543 table to recognize multiple-character string tokens, or for other
1544 purposes.
1545
1546 ** The %no_lines declaration says not to generate any #line preprocessor
1547 directives in the parser file.
1548
1549 ** The %raw declaration says to use internal Bison token numbers, not
1550 Yacc-compatible token numbers, when token names are defined as macros.
1551
1552 ** The --no-parser option produces the parser tables without including
1553 the parser engine; a project can now use its own parser engine.
1554 The actions go into a separate file called NAME.act, in the form of
1555 a switch statement body.
1556 \f
1557 * Changes in version 1.23:
1558
1559 The user can define YYPARSE_PARAM as the name of an argument to be
1560 passed into yyparse. The argument should have type void *. It should
1561 actually point to an object. Grammar actions can access the variable
1562 by casting it to the proper pointer type.
1563
1564 Line numbers in output file corrected.
1565 \f
1566 * Changes in version 1.22:
1567
1568 --help option added.
1569 \f
1570 * Changes in version 1.20:
1571
1572 Output file does not redefine const for C++.
1573
1574 Local Variables:
1575 mode: outline
1576 End:
1577
1578 -----
1579
1580 Copyright (C) 1995-2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
1581
1582 This file is part of Bison, the GNU Parser Generator.
1583
1584 This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
1585 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
1586 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
1587 (at your option) any later version.
1588
1589 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
1590 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
1591 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
1592 GNU General Public License for more details.
1593
1594 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
1595 along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.