]> git.saurik.com Git - bison.git/blob - NEWS
Merge tag 'v2.5.1_rc2'
[bison.git] / NEWS
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 ** C++ skeleton improvements
28
29 The C++ parser features a syntax_error exception, which can be
30 thrown from the scanner or from user rules to raise syntax errors.
31 This facilitates reporting errors caught in sub-functions (e.g.,
32 rejecting too large integral literals from a conversion function
33 used by the scanner, or rejecting invalid combinations from a
34 factory invoked by the user actions).
35
36 ** Variable api.tokens.prefix
37
38 The variable api.tokens.prefix changes the way tokens are identified in
39 the generated files. This is especially useful to avoid collisions
40 with identifiers in the target language. For instance
41
42 %token FILE for ERROR
43 %define api.tokens.prefix "TOK_"
44 %%
45 start: FILE for ERROR;
46
47 will generate the definition of the symbols TOK_FILE, TOK_for, and
48 TOK_ERROR in the generated sources. In particular, the scanner must
49 use these prefixed token names, although the grammar itself still
50 uses the short names (as in the sample rule given above).
51
52 ** Variable api.namespace
53
54 The "namespace" variable is renamed "api.namespace". Backward
55 compatibility is ensured, but upgrading is recommended.
56
57 ** Variable parse.error
58
59 The variable error controls the verbosity of error messages. The
60 use of the %error-verbose directive is deprecated in favor of
61 %define parse.error "verbose".
62
63 ** Semantic predicates
64
65 The new, experimental, semantic-predicate feature allows actions of
66 the form %?{ BOOLEAN-EXPRESSION }, which cause syntax errors (as for
67 YYERROR) if the expression evaluates to 0, and are evaluated immediately
68 in GLR parsers, rather than being deferred. The result is that they
69 allow the programmer to prune possible parses based on the values of
70 runtime expressions.
71
72 * Changes in version 2.5.1 (????-??-??):
73
74 ** Future changes:
75
76 The next major release will drop support for generating parsers in K&R C.
77
78 ** yacc.c: YYBACKUP works as expected.
79
80 ** glr.c improvements:
81
82 *** Location support is eliminated when not requested:
83
84 GLR parsers used to include location-related code even when locations were
85 not requested, and therefore not even usable.
86
87 *** __attribute__ is preserved:
88
89 __attribute__ is no longer disabled when __STRICT_ANSI__ is defined (i.e.,
90 when -std is passed to GCC).
91
92 ** lalr1.java: several fixes:
93
94 The Java parser no longer throws ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException if the
95 first token leads to a syntax error. Some minor clean ups.
96
97 ** Changes for C++:
98
99 *** C++11 compatibility:
100
101 C and C++ parsers use "nullptr" instead of "0" when __cplusplus is 201103L
102 or higher.
103
104 *** Header guards
105
106 The header files such as "parser.hh", "location.hh", etc. used a constant
107 name for preprocessor guards, for instance:
108
109 #ifndef BISON_LOCATION_HH
110 # define BISON_LOCATION_HH
111 ...
112 #endif // !BISON_LOCATION_HH
113
114 The inclusion guard is now computed from "PREFIX/FILE-NAME", where lower
115 case characters are converted to upper case, and series of
116 non-alphanumerical characters are converted to an underscore.
117
118 With "bison -o lang++/parser.cc", "location.hh" would now include:
119
120 #ifndef YY_LANG_LOCATION_HH
121 # define YY_LANG_LOCATION_HH
122 ...
123 #endif // !YY_LANG_LOCATION_HH
124
125 *** C++ locations:
126
127 The position and location constructors (and their initialize methods)
128 accept new arguments for line and column. Several issues in the
129 documentation were fixed.
130
131 ** liby is no longer asking for "rpl_fprintf" on some platforms.
132
133 ** Changes in the manual:
134
135 *** %printer is documented
136
137 The "%printer" directive, supported since at least Bison 1.50, is finally
138 documented. The "mfcalc" example is extended to demonstrate it.
139
140 For consistency with the C skeletons, the C++ parsers now also support
141 "yyoutput" (as an alias to "debug_stream ()").
142
143 *** Several improvements have been made:
144
145 The layout for grammar excerpts was changed to a more compact scheme.
146 Named references are motivated. The description of the automaton
147 description file (*.output) is updated to the current format. Incorrect
148 index entries were fixed. Some other errors were fixed.
149
150 ** Building bison:
151
152 *** Conflicting prototypes with recent/modified Flex.
153
154 Fixed build problems with the current, unreleased, version of Flex, and
155 some modified versions of 2.5.35, which have modified function prototypes.
156
157 *** Warnings during the build procedure have been eliminated.
158
159 *** Several portability problems in the test suite have been fixed:
160
161 This includes warnings with some compilers, unexpected behavior of tools
162 such as diff, warning messages from the test suite itself, etc.
163
164 *** The install-pdf target work properly:
165
166 Running "make install-pdf" (or -dvi, -html, -info, and -ps) no longer
167 halts in the middle of its course.
168
169 * Changes in version 2.5 (2011-05-14):
170
171 ** Grammar symbol names can now contain non-initial dashes:
172
173 Consistently with directives (such as %error-verbose) and with
174 %define variables (e.g. push-pull), grammar symbol names may contain
175 dashes in any position except the beginning. This is a GNU
176 extension over POSIX Yacc. Thus, use of this extension is reported
177 by -Wyacc and rejected in Yacc mode (--yacc).
178
179 ** Named references:
180
181 Historically, Yacc and Bison have supported positional references
182 ($n, $$) to allow access to symbol values from inside of semantic
183 actions code.
184
185 Starting from this version, Bison can also accept named references.
186 When no ambiguity is possible, original symbol names may be used
187 as named references:
188
189 if_stmt : "if" cond_expr "then" then_stmt ';'
190 { $if_stmt = mk_if_stmt($cond_expr, $then_stmt); }
191
192 In the more common case, explicit names may be declared:
193
194 stmt[res] : "if" expr[cond] "then" stmt[then] "else" stmt[else] ';'
195 { $res = mk_if_stmt($cond, $then, $else); }
196
197 Location information is also accessible using @name syntax. When
198 accessing symbol names containing dots or dashes, explicit bracketing
199 ($[sym.1]) must be used.
200
201 These features are experimental in this version. More user feedback
202 will help to stabilize them.
203
204 ** IELR(1) and canonical LR(1):
205
206 IELR(1) is a minimal LR(1) parser table generation algorithm. That
207 is, given any context-free grammar, IELR(1) generates parser tables
208 with the full language-recognition power of canonical LR(1) but with
209 nearly the same number of parser states as LALR(1). This reduction
210 in parser states is often an order of magnitude. More importantly,
211 because canonical LR(1)'s extra parser states may contain duplicate
212 conflicts in the case of non-LR(1) grammars, the number of conflicts
213 for IELR(1) is often an order of magnitude less as well. This can
214 significantly reduce the complexity of developing of a grammar.
215
216 Bison can now generate IELR(1) and canonical LR(1) parser tables in
217 place of its traditional LALR(1) parser tables, which remain the
218 default. You can specify the type of parser tables in the grammar
219 file with these directives:
220
221 %define lr.type lalr
222 %define lr.type ielr
223 %define lr.type canonical-lr
224
225 The default-reduction optimization in the parser tables can also be
226 adjusted using "%define lr.default-reductions". For details on both
227 of these features, see the new section "Tuning LR" in the Bison
228 manual.
229
230 These features are experimental. More user feedback will help to
231 stabilize them.
232
233 ** LAC (Lookahead Correction) for syntax error handling:
234
235 Canonical LR, IELR, and LALR can suffer from a couple of problems
236 upon encountering a syntax error. First, the parser might perform
237 additional parser stack reductions before discovering the syntax
238 error. Such reductions can perform user semantic actions that are
239 unexpected because they are based on an invalid token, and they
240 cause error recovery to begin in a different syntactic context than
241 the one in which the invalid token was encountered. Second, when
242 verbose error messages are enabled (with %error-verbose or the
243 obsolete "#define YYERROR_VERBOSE"), the expected token list in the
244 syntax error message can both contain invalid tokens and omit valid
245 tokens.
246
247 The culprits for the above problems are %nonassoc, default
248 reductions in inconsistent states, and parser state merging. Thus,
249 IELR and LALR suffer the most. Canonical LR can suffer only if
250 %nonassoc is used or if default reductions are enabled for
251 inconsistent states.
252
253 LAC is a new mechanism within the parsing algorithm that solves
254 these problems for canonical LR, IELR, and LALR without sacrificing
255 %nonassoc, default reductions, or state merging. When LAC is in
256 use, canonical LR and IELR behave almost exactly the same for both
257 syntactically acceptable and syntactically unacceptable input.
258 While LALR still does not support the full language-recognition
259 power of canonical LR and IELR, LAC at least enables LALR's syntax
260 error handling to correctly reflect LALR's language-recognition
261 power.
262
263 Currently, LAC is only supported for deterministic parsers in C.
264 You can enable LAC with the following directive:
265
266 %define parse.lac full
267
268 See the new section "LAC" in the Bison manual for additional
269 details including a few caveats.
270
271 LAC is an experimental feature. More user feedback will help to
272 stabilize it.
273
274 ** %define improvements:
275
276 *** Can now be invoked via the command line:
277
278 Each of these command-line options
279
280 -D NAME[=VALUE]
281 --define=NAME[=VALUE]
282
283 -F NAME[=VALUE]
284 --force-define=NAME[=VALUE]
285
286 is equivalent to this grammar file declaration
287
288 %define NAME ["VALUE"]
289
290 except that the manner in which Bison processes multiple definitions
291 for the same NAME differs. Most importantly, -F and --force-define
292 quietly override %define, but -D and --define do not. For further
293 details, see the section "Bison Options" in the Bison manual.
294
295 *** Variables renamed:
296
297 The following %define variables
298
299 api.push_pull
300 lr.keep_unreachable_states
301
302 have been renamed to
303
304 api.push-pull
305 lr.keep-unreachable-states
306
307 The old names are now deprecated but will be maintained indefinitely
308 for backward compatibility.
309
310 *** Values no longer need to be quoted in the grammar file:
311
312 If a %define value is an identifier, it no longer needs to be placed
313 within quotations marks. For example,
314
315 %define api.push-pull "push"
316
317 can be rewritten as
318
319 %define api.push-pull push
320
321 *** Unrecognized variables are now errors not warnings.
322
323 *** Multiple invocations for any variable is now an error not a warning.
324
325 ** Unrecognized %code qualifiers are now errors not warnings.
326
327 ** Character literals not of length one:
328
329 Previously, Bison quietly converted all character literals to length
330 one. For example, without warning, Bison interpreted the operators in
331 the following grammar to be the same token:
332
333 exp: exp '++'
334 | exp '+' exp
335 ;
336
337 Bison now warns when a character literal is not of length one. In
338 some future release, Bison will start reporting an error instead.
339
340 ** Destructor calls fixed for lookaheads altered in semantic actions:
341
342 Previously for deterministic parsers in C, if a user semantic action
343 altered yychar, the parser in some cases used the old yychar value to
344 determine which destructor to call for the lookahead upon a syntax
345 error or upon parser return. This bug has been fixed.
346
347 ** C++ parsers use YYRHSLOC:
348
349 Similarly to the C parsers, the C++ parsers now define the YYRHSLOC
350 macro and use it in the default YYLLOC_DEFAULT. You are encouraged
351 to use it. If, for instance, your location structure has "first"
352 and "last" members, instead of
353
354 # define YYLLOC_DEFAULT(Current, Rhs, N) \
355 do \
356 if (N) \
357 { \
358 (Current).first = (Rhs)[1].location.first; \
359 (Current).last = (Rhs)[N].location.last; \
360 } \
361 else \
362 { \
363 (Current).first = (Current).last = (Rhs)[0].location.last; \
364 } \
365 while (false)
366
367 use:
368
369 # define YYLLOC_DEFAULT(Current, Rhs, N) \
370 do \
371 if (N) \
372 { \
373 (Current).first = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, 1).first; \
374 (Current).last = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, N).last; \
375 } \
376 else \
377 { \
378 (Current).first = (Current).last = YYRHSLOC (Rhs, 0).last; \
379 } \
380 while (false)
381
382 ** YYLLOC_DEFAULT in C++:
383
384 The default implementation of YYLLOC_DEFAULT used to be issued in
385 the header file. It is now output in the implementation file, after
386 the user %code sections so that its #ifndef guard does not try to
387 override the user's YYLLOC_DEFAULT if provided.
388
389 ** YYFAIL now produces warnings and Java parsers no longer implement it:
390
391 YYFAIL has existed for many years as an undocumented feature of
392 deterministic parsers in C generated by Bison. More recently, it was
393 a documented feature of Bison's experimental Java parsers. As
394 promised in Bison 2.4.2's NEWS entry, any appearance of YYFAIL in a
395 semantic action now produces a deprecation warning, and Java parsers
396 no longer implement YYFAIL at all. For further details, including a
397 discussion of how to suppress C preprocessor warnings about YYFAIL
398 being unused, see the Bison 2.4.2 NEWS entry.
399
400 ** Temporary hack for adding a semicolon to the user action:
401
402 Previously, Bison appended a semicolon to every user action for
403 reductions when the output language defaulted to C (specifically, when
404 neither %yacc, %language, %skeleton, or equivalent command-line
405 options were specified). This allowed actions such as
406
407 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
408
409 instead of
410
411 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
412
413 As a first step in removing this misfeature, Bison now issues a
414 warning when it appends a semicolon. Moreover, in cases where Bison
415 cannot easily determine whether a semicolon is needed (for example, an
416 action ending with a cpp directive or a braced compound initializer),
417 it no longer appends one. Thus, the C compiler might now complain
418 about a missing semicolon where it did not before. Future releases of
419 Bison will cease to append semicolons entirely.
420
421 ** Verbose syntax error message fixes:
422
423 When %error-verbose or the obsolete "#define YYERROR_VERBOSE" is
424 specified, syntax error messages produced by the generated parser
425 include the unexpected token as well as a list of expected tokens.
426 The effect of %nonassoc on these verbose messages has been corrected
427 in two ways, but a more complete fix requires LAC, described above:
428
429 *** When %nonassoc is used, there can exist parser states that accept no
430 tokens, and so the parser does not always require a lookahead token
431 in order to detect a syntax error. Because no unexpected token or
432 expected tokens can then be reported, the verbose syntax error
433 message described above is suppressed, and the parser instead
434 reports the simpler message, "syntax error". Previously, this
435 suppression was sometimes erroneously triggered by %nonassoc when a
436 lookahead was actually required. Now verbose messages are
437 suppressed only when all previous lookaheads have already been
438 shifted or discarded.
439
440 *** Previously, the list of expected tokens erroneously included tokens
441 that would actually induce a syntax error because conflicts for them
442 were resolved with %nonassoc in the current parser state. Such
443 tokens are now properly omitted from the list.
444
445 *** Expected token lists are still often wrong due to state merging
446 (from LALR or IELR) and default reductions, which can both add
447 invalid tokens and subtract valid tokens. Canonical LR almost
448 completely fixes this problem by eliminating state merging and
449 default reductions. However, there is one minor problem left even
450 when using canonical LR and even after the fixes above. That is,
451 if the resolution of a conflict with %nonassoc appears in a later
452 parser state than the one at which some syntax error is
453 discovered, the conflicted token is still erroneously included in
454 the expected token list. Bison's new LAC implementation,
455 described above, eliminates this problem and the need for
456 canonical LR. However, LAC is still experimental and is disabled
457 by default.
458
459 ** Java skeleton fixes:
460
461 *** A location handling bug has been fixed.
462
463 *** The top element of each of the value stack and location stack is now
464 cleared when popped so that it can be garbage collected.
465
466 *** Parser traces now print the top element of the stack.
467
468 ** -W/--warnings fixes:
469
470 *** Bison now properly recognizes the "no-" versions of categories:
471
472 For example, given the following command line, Bison now enables all
473 warnings except warnings for incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc:
474
475 bison -Wall,no-yacc gram.y
476
477 *** Bison now treats S/R and R/R conflicts like other warnings:
478
479 Previously, conflict reports were independent of Bison's normal
480 warning system. Now, Bison recognizes the warning categories
481 "conflicts-sr" and "conflicts-rr". This change has important
482 consequences for the -W and --warnings command-line options. For
483 example:
484
485 bison -Wno-conflicts-sr gram.y # S/R conflicts not reported
486 bison -Wno-conflicts-rr gram.y # R/R conflicts not reported
487 bison -Wnone gram.y # no conflicts are reported
488 bison -Werror gram.y # any conflict is an error
489
490 However, as before, if the %expect or %expect-rr directive is
491 specified, an unexpected number of conflicts is an error, and an
492 expected number of conflicts is not reported, so -W and --warning
493 then have no effect on the conflict report.
494
495 *** The "none" category no longer disables a preceding "error":
496
497 For example, for the following command line, Bison now reports
498 errors instead of warnings for incompatibilities with POSIX Yacc:
499
500 bison -Werror,none,yacc gram.y
501
502 *** The "none" category now disables all Bison warnings:
503
504 Previously, the "none" category disabled only Bison warnings for
505 which there existed a specific -W/--warning category. However,
506 given the following command line, Bison is now guaranteed to
507 suppress all warnings:
508
509 bison -Wnone gram.y
510
511 ** Precedence directives can now assign token number 0:
512
513 Since Bison 2.3b, which restored the ability of precedence
514 directives to assign token numbers, doing so for token number 0 has
515 produced an assertion failure. For example:
516
517 %left END 0
518
519 This bug has been fixed.
520
521 * Changes in version 2.4.3 (2010-08-05):
522
523 ** Bison now obeys -Werror and --warnings=error for warnings about
524 grammar rules that are useless in the parser due to conflicts.
525
526 ** Problems with spawning M4 on at least FreeBSD 8 and FreeBSD 9 have
527 been fixed.
528
529 ** Failures in the test suite for GCC 4.5 have been fixed.
530
531 ** Failures in the test suite for some versions of Sun Studio C++ have
532 been fixed.
533
534 ** Contrary to Bison 2.4.2's NEWS entry, it has been decided that
535 warnings about undefined %prec identifiers will not be converted to
536 errors in Bison 2.5. They will remain warnings, which should be
537 sufficient for POSIX while avoiding backward compatibility issues.
538
539 ** Minor documentation fixes.
540
541 * Changes in version 2.4.2 (2010-03-20):
542
543 ** Some portability problems that resulted in failures and livelocks
544 in the test suite on some versions of at least Solaris, AIX, HP-UX,
545 RHEL4, and Tru64 have been addressed. As a result, fatal Bison
546 errors should no longer cause M4 to report a broken pipe on the
547 affected platforms.
548
549 ** "%prec IDENTIFIER" requires IDENTIFIER to be defined separately.
550
551 POSIX specifies that an error be reported for any identifier that does
552 not appear on the LHS of a grammar rule and that is not defined by
553 %token, %left, %right, or %nonassoc. Bison 2.3b and later lost this
554 error report for the case when an identifier appears only after a
555 %prec directive. It is now restored. However, for backward
556 compatibility with recent Bison releases, it is only a warning for
557 now. In Bison 2.5 and later, it will return to being an error.
558 [Between the 2.4.2 and 2.4.3 releases, it was decided that this
559 warning will not be converted to an error in Bison 2.5.]
560
561 ** Detection of GNU M4 1.4.6 or newer during configure is improved.
562
563 ** Warnings from gcc's -Wundef option about undefined YYENABLE_NLS,
564 YYLTYPE_IS_TRIVIAL, and __STRICT_ANSI__ in C/C++ parsers are now
565 avoided.
566
567 ** %code is now a permanent feature.
568
569 A traditional Yacc prologue directive is written in the form:
570
571 %{CODE%}
572
573 To provide a more flexible alternative, Bison 2.3b introduced the
574 %code directive with the following forms for C/C++:
575
576 %code {CODE}
577 %code requires {CODE}
578 %code provides {CODE}
579 %code top {CODE}
580
581 These forms are now considered permanent features of Bison. See the
582 %code entries in the section "Bison Declaration Summary" in the Bison
583 manual for a summary of their functionality. See the section
584 "Prologue Alternatives" for a detailed discussion including the
585 advantages of %code over the traditional Yacc prologue directive.
586
587 Bison's Java feature as a whole including its current usage of %code
588 is still considered experimental.
589
590 ** YYFAIL is deprecated and will eventually be removed.
591
592 YYFAIL has existed for many years as an undocumented feature of
593 deterministic parsers in C generated by Bison. Previously, it was
594 documented for Bison's experimental Java parsers. YYFAIL is no longer
595 documented for Java parsers and is formally deprecated in both cases.
596 Users are strongly encouraged to migrate to YYERROR, which is
597 specified by POSIX.
598
599 Like YYERROR, you can invoke YYFAIL from a semantic action in order to
600 induce a syntax error. The most obvious difference from YYERROR is
601 that YYFAIL will automatically invoke yyerror to report the syntax
602 error so that you don't have to. However, there are several other
603 subtle differences between YYERROR and YYFAIL, and YYFAIL suffers from
604 inherent flaws when %error-verbose or "#define YYERROR_VERBOSE" is
605 used. For a more detailed discussion, see:
606
607 http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bison-patches/2009-12/msg00024.html
608
609 The upcoming Bison 2.5 will remove YYFAIL from Java parsers, but
610 deterministic parsers in C will continue to implement it. However,
611 because YYFAIL is already flawed, it seems futile to try to make new
612 Bison features compatible with it. Thus, during parser generation,
613 Bison 2.5 will produce a warning whenever it discovers YYFAIL in a
614 rule action. In a later release, YYFAIL will be disabled for
615 %error-verbose and "#define YYERROR_VERBOSE". Eventually, YYFAIL will
616 be removed altogether.
617
618 There exists at least one case where Bison 2.5's YYFAIL warning will
619 be a false positive. Some projects add phony uses of YYFAIL and other
620 Bison-defined macros for the sole purpose of suppressing C
621 preprocessor warnings (from GCC cpp's -Wunused-macros, for example).
622 To avoid Bison's future warning, such YYFAIL uses can be moved to the
623 epilogue (that is, after the second "%%") in the Bison input file. In
624 this release (2.4.2), Bison already generates its own code to suppress
625 C preprocessor warnings for YYFAIL, so projects can remove their own
626 phony uses of YYFAIL if compatibility with Bison releases prior to
627 2.4.2 is not necessary.
628
629 ** Internationalization.
630
631 Fix a regression introduced in Bison 2.4: Under some circumstances,
632 message translations were not installed although supported by the
633 host system.
634
635 * Changes in version 2.4.1 (2008-12-11):
636
637 ** In the GLR defines file, unexpanded M4 macros in the yylval and yylloc
638 declarations have been fixed.
639
640 ** Temporary hack for adding a semicolon to the user action.
641
642 Bison used to prepend a trailing semicolon at the end of the user
643 action for reductions. This allowed actions such as
644
645 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 };
646
647 instead of
648
649 exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; };
650
651 Some grammars still depend on this "feature". Bison 2.4.1 restores
652 the previous behavior in the case of C output (specifically, when
653 neither %language or %skeleton or equivalent command-line options
654 are used) to leave more time for grammars depending on the old
655 behavior to be adjusted. Future releases of Bison will disable this
656 feature.
657
658 ** A few minor improvements to the Bison manual.
659
660 * Changes in version 2.4 (2008-11-02):
661
662 ** %language is an experimental feature.
663
664 We first introduced this feature in test release 2.3b as a cleaner
665 alternative to %skeleton. Since then, we have discussed the possibility of
666 modifying its effect on Bison's output file names. Thus, in this release,
667 we consider %language to be an experimental feature that will likely evolve
668 in future releases.
669
670 ** Forward compatibility with GNU M4 has been improved.
671
672 ** Several bugs in the C++ skeleton and the experimental Java skeleton have been
673 fixed.
674
675 * Changes in version 2.3b (2008-05-27):
676
677 ** The quotes around NAME that used to be required in the following directive
678 are now deprecated:
679
680 %define NAME "VALUE"
681
682 ** The directive "%pure-parser" is now deprecated in favor of:
683
684 %define api.pure
685
686 which has the same effect except that Bison is more careful to warn about
687 unreasonable usage in the latter case.
688
689 ** Push Parsing
690
691 Bison can now generate an LALR(1) parser in C with a push interface. That
692 is, instead of invoking "yyparse", which pulls tokens from "yylex", you can
693 push one token at a time to the parser using "yypush_parse", which will
694 return to the caller after processing each token. By default, the push
695 interface is disabled. Either of the following directives will enable it:
696
697 %define api.push_pull "push" // Just push; does not require yylex.
698 %define api.push_pull "both" // Push and pull; requires yylex.
699
700 See the new section "A Push Parser" in the Bison manual for details.
701
702 The current push parsing interface is experimental and may evolve. More user
703 feedback will help to stabilize it.
704
705 ** The -g and --graph options now output graphs in Graphviz DOT format,
706 not VCG format. Like --graph, -g now also takes an optional FILE argument
707 and thus cannot be bundled with other short options.
708
709 ** Java
710
711 Bison can now generate an LALR(1) parser in Java. The skeleton is
712 "data/lalr1.java". Consider using the new %language directive instead of
713 %skeleton to select it.
714
715 See the new section "Java Parsers" in the Bison manual for details.
716
717 The current Java interface is experimental and may evolve. More user
718 feedback will help to stabilize it.
719
720 ** %language
721
722 This new directive specifies the programming language of the generated
723 parser, which can be C (the default), C++, or Java. Besides the skeleton
724 that Bison uses, the directive affects the names of the generated files if
725 the grammar file's name ends in ".y".
726
727 ** XML Automaton Report
728
729 Bison can now generate an XML report of the LALR(1) automaton using the new
730 "--xml" option. The current XML schema is experimental and may evolve. More
731 user feedback will help to stabilize it.
732
733 ** The grammar file may now specify the name of the parser header file using
734 %defines. For example:
735
736 %defines "parser.h"
737
738 ** When reporting useless rules, useless nonterminals, and unused terminals,
739 Bison now employs the terms "useless in grammar" instead of "useless",
740 "useless in parser" instead of "never reduced", and "unused in grammar"
741 instead of "unused".
742
743 ** Unreachable State Removal
744
745 Previously, Bison sometimes generated parser tables containing unreachable
746 states. A state can become unreachable during conflict resolution if Bison
747 disables a shift action leading to it from a predecessor state. Bison now:
748
749 1. Removes unreachable states.
750
751 2. Does not report any conflicts that appeared in unreachable states.
752 WARNING: As a result, you may need to update %expect and %expect-rr
753 directives in existing grammar files.
754
755 3. For any rule used only in such states, Bison now reports the rule as
756 "useless in parser due to conflicts".
757
758 This feature can be disabled with the following directive:
759
760 %define lr.keep_unreachable_states
761
762 See the %define entry in the "Bison Declaration Summary" in the Bison manual
763 for further discussion.
764
765 ** Lookahead Set Correction in the ".output" Report
766
767 When instructed to generate a ".output" file including lookahead sets
768 (using "--report=lookahead", for example), Bison now prints each reduction's
769 lookahead set only next to the associated state's one item that (1) is
770 associated with the same rule as the reduction and (2) has its dot at the end
771 of its RHS. Previously, Bison also erroneously printed the lookahead set
772 next to all of the state's other items associated with the same rule. This
773 bug affected only the ".output" file and not the generated parser source
774 code.
775
776 ** --report-file=FILE is a new option to override the default ".output" file
777 name.
778
779 ** The "=" that used to be required in the following directives is now
780 deprecated:
781
782 %file-prefix "parser"
783 %name-prefix "c_"
784 %output "parser.c"
785
786 ** An Alternative to "%{...%}" -- "%code QUALIFIER {CODE}"
787
788 Bison 2.3a provided a new set of directives as a more flexible alternative to
789 the traditional Yacc prologue blocks. Those have now been consolidated into
790 a single %code directive with an optional qualifier field, which identifies
791 the purpose of the code and thus the location(s) where Bison should generate
792 it:
793
794 1. "%code {CODE}" replaces "%after-header {CODE}"
795 2. "%code requires {CODE}" replaces "%start-header {CODE}"
796 3. "%code provides {CODE}" replaces "%end-header {CODE}"
797 4. "%code top {CODE}" replaces "%before-header {CODE}"
798
799 See the %code entries in section "Bison Declaration Summary" in the Bison
800 manual for a summary of the new functionality. See the new section "Prologue
801 Alternatives" for a detailed discussion including the advantages of %code
802 over the traditional Yacc prologues.
803
804 The prologue alternatives are experimental. More user feedback will help to
805 determine whether they should become permanent features.
806
807 ** Revised warning: unset or unused mid-rule values
808
809 Since Bison 2.2, Bison has warned about mid-rule values that are set but not
810 used within any of the actions of the parent rule. For example, Bison warns
811 about unused $2 in:
812
813 exp: '1' { $$ = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $1 + $4; };
814
815 Now, Bison also warns about mid-rule values that are used but not set. For
816 example, Bison warns about unset $$ in the mid-rule action in:
817
818 exp: '1' { $1 = 1; } '+' exp { $$ = $2 + $4; };
819
820 However, Bison now disables both of these warnings by default since they
821 sometimes prove to be false alarms in existing grammars employing the Yacc
822 constructs $0 or $-N (where N is some positive integer).
823
824 To enable these warnings, specify the option "--warnings=midrule-values" or
825 "-W", which is a synonym for "--warnings=all".
826
827 ** Default %destructor or %printer with "<*>" or "<>"
828
829 Bison now recognizes two separate kinds of default %destructor's and
830 %printer's:
831
832 1. Place "<*>" in a %destructor/%printer symbol list to define a default
833 %destructor/%printer for all grammar symbols for which you have formally
834 declared semantic type tags.
835
836 2. Place "<>" in a %destructor/%printer symbol list to define a default
837 %destructor/%printer for all grammar symbols without declared semantic
838 type tags.
839
840 Bison no longer supports the "%symbol-default" notation from Bison 2.3a.
841 "<*>" and "<>" combined achieve the same effect with one exception: Bison no
842 longer applies any %destructor to a mid-rule value if that mid-rule value is
843 not actually ever referenced using either $$ or $n in a semantic action.
844
845 The default %destructor's and %printer's are experimental. More user
846 feedback will help to determine whether they should become permanent
847 features.
848
849 See the section "Freeing Discarded Symbols" in the Bison manual for further
850 details.
851
852 ** %left, %right, and %nonassoc can now declare token numbers. This is required
853 by POSIX. However, see the end of section "Operator Precedence" in the Bison
854 manual for a caveat concerning the treatment of literal strings.
855
856 ** The nonfunctional --no-parser, -n, and %no-parser options have been
857 completely removed from Bison.
858
859 * Changes in version 2.3a, 2006-09-13:
860
861 ** Instead of %union, you can define and use your own union type
862 YYSTYPE if your grammar contains at least one <type> tag.
863 Your YYSTYPE need not be a macro; it can be a typedef.
864 This change is for compatibility with other Yacc implementations,
865 and is required by POSIX.
866
867 ** Locations columns and lines start at 1.
868 In accordance with the GNU Coding Standards and Emacs.
869
870 ** You may now declare per-type and default %destructor's and %printer's:
871
872 For example:
873
874 %union { char *string; }
875 %token <string> STRING1
876 %token <string> STRING2
877 %type <string> string1
878 %type <string> string2
879 %union { char character; }
880 %token <character> CHR
881 %type <character> chr
882 %destructor { free ($$); } %symbol-default
883 %destructor { free ($$); printf ("%d", @$.first_line); } STRING1 string1
884 %destructor { } <character>
885
886 guarantees that, when the parser discards any user-defined symbol that has a
887 semantic type tag other than "<character>", it passes its semantic value to
888 "free". However, when the parser discards a "STRING1" or a "string1", it
889 also prints its line number to "stdout". It performs only the second
890 "%destructor" in this case, so it invokes "free" only once.
891
892 [Although we failed to mention this here in the 2.3a release, the default
893 %destructor's and %printer's were experimental, and they were rewritten in
894 future versions.]
895
896 ** Except for LALR(1) parsers in C with POSIX Yacc emulation enabled (with "-y",
897 "--yacc", or "%yacc"), Bison no longer generates #define statements for
898 associating token numbers with token names. Removing the #define statements
899 helps to sanitize the global namespace during preprocessing, but POSIX Yacc
900 requires them. Bison still generates an enum for token names in all cases.
901
902 ** Handling of traditional Yacc prologue blocks is now more consistent but
903 potentially incompatible with previous releases of Bison.
904
905 As before, you declare prologue blocks in your grammar file with the
906 "%{ ... %}" syntax. To generate the pre-prologue, Bison concatenates all
907 prologue blocks that you've declared before the first %union. To generate
908 the post-prologue, Bison concatenates all prologue blocks that you've
909 declared after the first %union.
910
911 Previous releases of Bison inserted the pre-prologue into both the header
912 file and the code file in all cases except for LALR(1) parsers in C. In the
913 latter case, Bison inserted it only into the code file. For parsers in C++,
914 the point of insertion was before any token definitions (which associate
915 token numbers with names). For parsers in C, the point of insertion was
916 after the token definitions.
917
918 Now, Bison never inserts the pre-prologue into the header file. In the code
919 file, it always inserts it before the token definitions.
920
921 ** Bison now provides a more flexible alternative to the traditional Yacc
922 prologue blocks: %before-header, %start-header, %end-header, and
923 %after-header.
924
925 For example, the following declaration order in the grammar file reflects the
926 order in which Bison will output these code blocks. However, you are free to
927 declare these code blocks in your grammar file in whatever order is most
928 convenient for you:
929
930 %before-header {
931 /* Bison treats this block like a pre-prologue block: it inserts it into
932 * the code file before the contents of the header file. It does *not*
933 * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to put
934 * #include's that you want at the top of your code file. A common
935 * example is '#include "system.h"'. */
936 }
937 %start-header {
938 /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file.
939 * In both files, the point of insertion is before any Bison-generated
940 * token, semantic type, location type, and class definitions. This is a
941 * good place to define %union dependencies, for example. */
942 }
943 %union {
944 /* Unlike the traditional Yacc prologue blocks, the output order for the
945 * new %*-header blocks is not affected by their declaration position
946 * relative to any %union in the grammar file. */
947 }
948 %end-header {
949 /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file.
950 * In both files, the point of insertion is after the Bison-generated
951 * definitions. This is a good place to declare or define public
952 * functions or data structures that depend on the Bison-generated
953 * definitions. */
954 }
955 %after-header {
956 /* Bison treats this block like a post-prologue block: it inserts it into
957 * the code file after the contents of the header file. It does *not*
958 * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to declare or
959 * define internal functions or data structures that depend on the
960 * Bison-generated definitions. */
961 }
962
963 If you have multiple occurrences of any one of the above declarations, Bison
964 will concatenate the contents in declaration order.
965
966 [Although we failed to mention this here in the 2.3a release, the prologue
967 alternatives were experimental, and they were rewritten in future versions.]
968
969 ** The option "--report=look-ahead" has been changed to "--report=lookahead".
970 The old spelling still works, but is not documented and may be removed
971 in a future release.
972
973 * Changes in version 2.3, 2006-06-05:
974
975 ** GLR grammars should now use "YYRECOVERING ()" instead of "YYRECOVERING",
976 for compatibility with LALR(1) grammars.
977
978 ** It is now documented that any definition of YYSTYPE or YYLTYPE should
979 be to a type name that does not contain parentheses or brackets.
980
981 * Changes in version 2.2, 2006-05-19:
982
983 ** The distribution terms for all Bison-generated parsers now permit
984 using the parsers in nonfree programs. Previously, this permission
985 was granted only for Bison-generated LALR(1) parsers in C.
986
987 ** %name-prefix changes the namespace name in C++ outputs.
988
989 ** The C++ parsers export their token_type.
990
991 ** Bison now allows multiple %union declarations, and concatenates
992 their contents together.
993
994 ** New warning: unused values
995 Right-hand side symbols whose values are not used are reported,
996 if the symbols have destructors. For instance:
997
998 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; }
999 | exp "+" exp
1000 ;
1001
1002 will trigger a warning about $$ and $5 in the first rule, and $3 in
1003 the second ($1 is copied to $$ by the default rule). This example
1004 most likely contains three errors, and could be rewritten as:
1005
1006 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp
1007 { $$ = $1 ? $3 : $5; free ($1 ? $5 : $3); free ($1); }
1008 | exp "+" exp
1009 { $$ = $1 ? $1 : $3; if ($1) free ($3); }
1010 ;
1011
1012 However, if the original actions were really intended, memory leaks
1013 and all, the warnings can be suppressed by letting Bison believe the
1014 values are used, e.g.:
1015
1016 exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; (void) ($$, $5); }
1017 | exp "+" exp { $$ = $1; (void) $3; }
1018 ;
1019
1020 If there are mid-rule actions, the warning is issued if no action
1021 uses it. The following triggers no warning: $1 and $3 are used.
1022
1023 exp: exp { push ($1); } '+' exp { push ($3); sum (); };
1024
1025 The warning is intended to help catching lost values and memory leaks.
1026 If a value is ignored, its associated memory typically is not reclaimed.
1027
1028 ** %destructor vs. YYABORT, YYACCEPT, and YYERROR.
1029 Destructors are now called when user code invokes YYABORT, YYACCEPT,
1030 and YYERROR, for all objects on the stack, other than objects
1031 corresponding to the right-hand side of the current rule.
1032
1033 ** %expect, %expect-rr
1034 Incorrect numbers of expected conflicts are now actual errors,
1035 instead of warnings.
1036
1037 ** GLR, YACC parsers.
1038 The %parse-params are available in the destructors (and the
1039 experimental printers) as per the documentation.
1040
1041 ** Bison now warns if it finds a stray "$" or "@" in an action.
1042
1043 ** %require "VERSION"
1044 This specifies that the grammar file depends on features implemented
1045 in Bison version VERSION or higher.
1046
1047 ** lalr1.cc: The token and value types are now class members.
1048 The tokens were defined as free form enums and cpp macros. YYSTYPE
1049 was defined as a free form union. They are now class members:
1050 tokens are enumerations of the "yy::parser::token" struct, and the
1051 semantic values have the "yy::parser::semantic_type" type.
1052
1053 If you do not want or can update to this scheme, the directive
1054 '%define "global_tokens_and_yystype" "1"' triggers the global
1055 definition of tokens and YYSTYPE. This change is suitable both
1056 for previous releases of Bison, and this one.
1057
1058 If you wish to update, then make sure older version of Bison will
1059 fail using '%require "2.2"'.
1060
1061 ** DJGPP support added.
1062 \f
1063 * Changes in version 2.1, 2005-09-16:
1064
1065 ** The C++ lalr1.cc skeleton supports %lex-param.
1066
1067 ** Bison-generated parsers now support the translation of diagnostics like
1068 "syntax error" into languages other than English. The default
1069 language is still English. For details, please see the new
1070 Internationalization section of the Bison manual. Software
1071 distributors should also see the new PACKAGING file. Thanks to
1072 Bruno Haible for this new feature.
1073
1074 ** Wording in the Bison-generated parsers has been changed slightly to
1075 simplify translation. In particular, the message "memory exhausted"
1076 has replaced "parser stack overflow", as the old message was not
1077 always accurate for modern Bison-generated parsers.
1078
1079 ** Destructors are now called when the parser aborts, for all symbols left
1080 behind on the stack. Also, the start symbol is now destroyed after a
1081 successful parse. In both cases, the behavior was formerly inconsistent.
1082
1083 ** When generating verbose diagnostics, Bison-generated parsers no longer
1084 quote the literal strings associated with tokens. For example, for
1085 a syntax error associated with '%token NUM "number"' they might
1086 print 'syntax error, unexpected number' instead of 'syntax error,
1087 unexpected "number"'.
1088 \f
1089 * Changes in version 2.0, 2004-12-25:
1090
1091 ** Possibly-incompatible changes
1092
1093 - Bison-generated parsers no longer default to using the alloca function
1094 (when available) to extend the parser stack, due to widespread
1095 problems in unchecked stack-overflow detection. You can "#define
1096 YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA 1" to require the use of alloca, but please read
1097 the manual to determine safe values for YYMAXDEPTH in that case.
1098
1099 - Error token location.
1100 During error recovery, the location of the syntax error is updated
1101 to cover the whole sequence covered by the error token: it includes
1102 the shifted symbols thrown away during the first part of the error
1103 recovery, and the lookahead rejected during the second part.
1104
1105 - Semicolon changes:
1106 . Stray semicolons are no longer allowed at the start of a grammar.
1107 . Semicolons are now required after in-grammar declarations.
1108
1109 - Unescaped newlines are no longer allowed in character constants or
1110 string literals. They were never portable, and GCC 3.4.0 has
1111 dropped support for them. Better diagnostics are now generated if
1112 forget a closing quote.
1113
1114 - NUL bytes are no longer allowed in Bison string literals, unfortunately.
1115
1116 ** New features
1117
1118 - GLR grammars now support locations.
1119
1120 - New directive: %initial-action.
1121 This directive allows the user to run arbitrary code (including
1122 initializing @$) from yyparse before parsing starts.
1123
1124 - A new directive "%expect-rr N" specifies the expected number of
1125 reduce/reduce conflicts in GLR parsers.
1126
1127 - %token numbers can now be hexadecimal integers, e.g., "%token FOO 0x12d".
1128 This is a GNU extension.
1129
1130 - The option "--report=lookahead" was changed to "--report=look-ahead".
1131 [However, this was changed back after 2.3.]
1132
1133 - Experimental %destructor support has been added to lalr1.cc.
1134
1135 - New configure option --disable-yacc, to disable installation of the
1136 yacc command and -ly library introduced in 1.875 for POSIX conformance.
1137
1138 ** Bug fixes
1139
1140 - For now, %expect-count violations are now just warnings, not errors.
1141 This is for compatibility with Bison 1.75 and earlier (when there are
1142 reduce/reduce conflicts) and with Bison 1.30 and earlier (when there
1143 are too many or too few shift/reduce conflicts). However, in future
1144 versions of Bison we plan to improve the %expect machinery so that
1145 these violations will become errors again.
1146
1147 - Within Bison itself, numbers (e.g., goto numbers) are no longer
1148 arbitrarily limited to 16-bit counts.
1149
1150 - Semicolons are now allowed before "|" in grammar rules, as POSIX requires.
1151 \f
1152 * Changes in version 1.875, 2003-01-01:
1153
1154 ** The documentation license has been upgraded to version 1.2
1155 of the GNU Free Documentation License.
1156
1157 ** syntax error processing
1158
1159 - In Yacc-style parsers YYLLOC_DEFAULT is now used to compute error
1160 locations too. This fixes bugs in error-location computation.
1161
1162 - %destructor
1163 It is now possible to reclaim the memory associated to symbols
1164 discarded during error recovery. This feature is still experimental.
1165
1166 - %error-verbose
1167 This new directive is preferred over YYERROR_VERBOSE.
1168
1169 - #defining yyerror to steal internal variables is discouraged.
1170 It is not guaranteed to work forever.
1171
1172 ** POSIX conformance
1173
1174 - Semicolons are once again optional at the end of grammar rules.
1175 This reverts to the behavior of Bison 1.33 and earlier, and improves
1176 compatibility with Yacc.
1177
1178 - "parse error" -> "syntax error"
1179 Bison now uniformly uses the term "syntax error"; formerly, the code
1180 and manual sometimes used the term "parse error" instead. POSIX
1181 requires "syntax error" in diagnostics, and it was thought better to
1182 be consistent.
1183
1184 - The documentation now emphasizes that yylex and yyerror must be
1185 declared before use. C99 requires this.
1186
1187 - Bison now parses C99 lexical constructs like UCNs and
1188 backslash-newline within C escape sequences, as POSIX 1003.1-2001 requires.
1189
1190 - File names are properly escaped in C output. E.g., foo\bar.y is
1191 output as "foo\\bar.y".
1192
1193 - Yacc command and library now available
1194 The Bison distribution now installs a "yacc" command, as POSIX requires.
1195 Also, Bison now installs a small library liby.a containing
1196 implementations of Yacc-compatible yyerror and main functions.
1197 This library is normally not useful, but POSIX requires it.
1198
1199 - Type clashes now generate warnings, not errors.
1200
1201 - If the user does not define YYSTYPE as a macro, Bison now declares it
1202 using typedef instead of defining it as a macro.
1203 For consistency, YYLTYPE is also declared instead of defined.
1204
1205 ** Other compatibility issues
1206
1207 - %union directives can now have a tag before the "{", e.g., the
1208 directive "%union foo {...}" now generates the C code
1209 "typedef union foo { ... } YYSTYPE;"; this is for Yacc compatibility.
1210 The default union tag is "YYSTYPE", for compatibility with Solaris 9 Yacc.
1211 For consistency, YYLTYPE's struct tag is now "YYLTYPE" not "yyltype".
1212 This is for compatibility with both Yacc and Bison 1.35.
1213
1214 - ";" is output before the terminating "}" of an action, for
1215 compatibility with Bison 1.35.
1216
1217 - Bison now uses a Yacc-style format for conflict reports, e.g.,
1218 "conflicts: 2 shift/reduce, 1 reduce/reduce".
1219
1220 - "yystype" and "yyltype" are now obsolescent macros instead of being
1221 typedefs or tags; they are no longer documented and are planned to be
1222 withdrawn in a future release.
1223
1224 ** GLR parser notes
1225
1226 - GLR and inline
1227 Users of Bison have to decide how they handle the portability of the
1228 C keyword "inline".
1229
1230 - "parsing stack overflow..." -> "parser stack overflow"
1231 GLR parsers now report "parser stack overflow" as per the Bison manual.
1232
1233 ** Bison now warns if it detects conflicting outputs to the same file,
1234 e.g., it generates a warning for "bison -d -o foo.h foo.y" since
1235 that command outputs both code and header to foo.h.
1236
1237 ** #line in output files
1238 - --no-line works properly.
1239
1240 ** Bison can no longer be built by a K&R C compiler; it requires C89 or
1241 later to be built. This change originally took place a few versions
1242 ago, but nobody noticed until we recently asked someone to try
1243 building Bison with a K&R C compiler.
1244 \f
1245 * Changes in version 1.75, 2002-10-14:
1246
1247 ** Bison should now work on 64-bit hosts.
1248
1249 ** Indonesian translation thanks to Tedi Heriyanto.
1250
1251 ** GLR parsers
1252 Fix spurious parse errors.
1253
1254 ** Pure parsers
1255 Some people redefine yyerror to steal yyparse' private variables.
1256 Reenable this trick until an official feature replaces it.
1257
1258 ** Type Clashes
1259 In agreement with POSIX and with other Yaccs, leaving a default
1260 action is valid when $$ is untyped, and $1 typed:
1261
1262 untyped: ... typed;
1263
1264 but the converse remains an error:
1265
1266 typed: ... untyped;
1267
1268 ** Values of mid-rule actions
1269 The following code:
1270
1271 foo: { ... } { $$ = $1; } ...
1272
1273 was incorrectly rejected: $1 is defined in the second mid-rule
1274 action, and is equal to the $$ of the first mid-rule action.
1275 \f
1276 * Changes in version 1.50, 2002-10-04:
1277
1278 ** GLR parsing
1279 The declaration
1280 %glr-parser
1281 causes Bison to produce a Generalized LR (GLR) parser, capable of handling
1282 almost any context-free grammar, ambiguous or not. The new declarations
1283 %dprec and %merge on grammar rules allow parse-time resolution of
1284 ambiguities. Contributed by Paul Hilfinger.
1285
1286 Unfortunately Bison 1.50 does not work properly on 64-bit hosts
1287 like the Alpha, so please stick to 32-bit hosts for now.
1288
1289 ** Output Directory
1290 When not in Yacc compatibility mode, when the output file was not
1291 specified, running "bison foo/bar.y" created "foo/bar.c". It
1292 now creates "bar.c".
1293
1294 ** Undefined token
1295 The undefined token was systematically mapped to 2 which prevented
1296 the use of 2 by the user. This is no longer the case.
1297
1298 ** Unknown token numbers
1299 If yylex returned an out of range value, yyparse could die. This is
1300 no longer the case.
1301
1302 ** Error token
1303 According to POSIX, the error token must be 256.
1304 Bison extends this requirement by making it a preference: *if* the
1305 user specified that one of her tokens is numbered 256, then error
1306 will be mapped onto another number.
1307
1308 ** Verbose error messages
1309 They no longer report "..., expecting error or..." for states where
1310 error recovery is possible.
1311
1312 ** End token
1313 Defaults to "$end" instead of "$".
1314
1315 ** Error recovery now conforms to documentation and to POSIX
1316 When a Bison-generated parser encounters a syntax error, it now pops
1317 the stack until it finds a state that allows shifting the error
1318 token. Formerly, it popped the stack until it found a state that
1319 allowed some non-error action other than a default reduction on the
1320 error token. The new behavior has long been the documented behavior,
1321 and has long been required by POSIX. For more details, please see
1322 Paul Eggert, "Reductions during Bison error handling" (2002-05-20)
1323 <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-bison/2002-05/msg00038.html>.
1324
1325 ** Traces
1326 Popped tokens and nonterminals are now reported.
1327
1328 ** Larger grammars
1329 Larger grammars are now supported (larger token numbers, larger grammar
1330 size (= sum of the LHS and RHS lengths), larger LALR tables).
1331 Formerly, many of these numbers ran afoul of 16-bit limits;
1332 now these limits are 32 bits on most hosts.
1333
1334 ** Explicit initial rule
1335 Bison used to play hacks with the initial rule, which the user does
1336 not write. It is now explicit, and visible in the reports and
1337 graphs as rule 0.
1338
1339 ** Useless rules
1340 Before, Bison reported the useless rules, but, although not used,
1341 included them in the parsers. They are now actually removed.
1342
1343 ** Useless rules, useless nonterminals
1344 They are now reported, as a warning, with their locations.
1345
1346 ** Rules never reduced
1347 Rules that can never be reduced because of conflicts are now
1348 reported.
1349
1350 ** Incorrect "Token not used"
1351 On a grammar such as
1352
1353 %token useless useful
1354 %%
1355 exp: '0' %prec useful;
1356
1357 where a token was used to set the precedence of the last rule,
1358 bison reported both "useful" and "useless" as useless tokens.
1359
1360 ** Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31
1361 as they caused too many portability hassles.
1362
1363 ** Default locations
1364 By an accident of design, the default computation of @$ was
1365 performed after another default computation was performed: @$ = @1.
1366 The latter is now removed: YYLLOC_DEFAULT is fully responsible of
1367 the computation of @$.
1368
1369 ** Token end-of-file
1370 The token end of file may be specified by the user, in which case,
1371 the user symbol is used in the reports, the graphs, and the verbose
1372 error messages instead of "$end", which remains being the default.
1373 For instance
1374 %token MYEOF 0
1375 or
1376 %token MYEOF 0 "end of file"
1377
1378 ** Semantic parser
1379 This old option, which has been broken for ages, is removed.
1380
1381 ** New translations
1382 Brazilian Portuguese, thanks to Alexandre Folle de Menezes.
1383 Croatian, thanks to Denis Lackovic.
1384
1385 ** Incorrect token definitions
1386 When given
1387 %token 'a' "A"
1388 bison used to output
1389 #define 'a' 65
1390
1391 ** Token definitions as enums
1392 Tokens are output both as the traditional #define's, and, provided
1393 the compiler supports ANSI C or is a C++ compiler, as enums.
1394 This lets debuggers display names instead of integers.
1395
1396 ** Reports
1397 In addition to --verbose, bison supports --report=THINGS, which
1398 produces additional information:
1399 - itemset
1400 complete the core item sets with their closure
1401 - lookahead [changed to "look-ahead" in 1.875e through 2.3, but changed back]
1402 explicitly associate lookahead tokens to items
1403 - solved
1404 describe shift/reduce conflicts solving.
1405 Bison used to systematically output this information on top of
1406 the report. Solved conflicts are now attached to their states.
1407
1408 ** Type clashes
1409 Previous versions don't complain when there is a type clash on
1410 the default action if the rule has a mid-rule action, such as in:
1411
1412 %type <foo> bar
1413 %%
1414 bar: '0' {} '0';
1415
1416 This is fixed.
1417
1418 ** GNU M4 is now required when using Bison.
1419 \f
1420 * Changes in version 1.35, 2002-03-25:
1421
1422 ** C Skeleton
1423 Some projects use Bison's C parser with C++ compilers, and define
1424 YYSTYPE as a class. The recent adjustment of C parsers for data
1425 alignment and 64 bit architectures made this impossible.
1426
1427 Because for the time being no real solution for C++ parser
1428 generation exists, kludges were implemented in the parser to
1429 maintain this use. In the future, when Bison has C++ parsers, this
1430 kludge will be disabled.
1431
1432 This kludge also addresses some C++ problems when the stack was
1433 extended.
1434 \f
1435 * Changes in version 1.34, 2002-03-12:
1436
1437 ** File name clashes are detected
1438 $ bison foo.y -d -o foo.x
1439 fatal error: header and parser would both be named "foo.x"
1440
1441 ** A missing ";" at the end of a rule triggers a warning
1442 In accordance with POSIX, and in agreement with other
1443 Yacc implementations, Bison will mandate this semicolon in the near
1444 future. This eases the implementation of a Bison parser of Bison
1445 grammars by making this grammar LALR(1) instead of LR(2). To
1446 facilitate the transition, this release introduces a warning.
1447
1448 ** Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31, as they caused too
1449 many portability hassles.
1450
1451 ** DJGPP support added.
1452
1453 ** Fix test suite portability problems.
1454 \f
1455 * Changes in version 1.33, 2002-02-07:
1456
1457 ** Fix C++ issues
1458 Groff could not be compiled for the definition of size_t was lacking
1459 under some conditions.
1460
1461 ** Catch invalid @n
1462 As is done with $n.
1463 \f
1464 * Changes in version 1.32, 2002-01-23:
1465
1466 ** Fix Yacc output file names
1467
1468 ** Portability fixes
1469
1470 ** Italian, Dutch translations
1471 \f
1472 * Changes in version 1.31, 2002-01-14:
1473
1474 ** Many Bug Fixes
1475
1476 ** GNU Gettext and %expect
1477 GNU Gettext asserts 10 s/r conflicts, but there are 7. Now that
1478 Bison dies on incorrect %expectations, we fear there will be
1479 too many bug reports for Gettext, so _for the time being_, %expect
1480 does not trigger an error when the input file is named "plural.y".
1481
1482 ** Use of alloca in parsers
1483 If YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA is defined to 0, then the parsers will use
1484 malloc exclusively. Since 1.29, but was not NEWS'ed.
1485
1486 alloca is used only when compiled with GCC, to avoid portability
1487 problems as on AIX.
1488
1489 ** yyparse now returns 2 if memory is exhausted; formerly it dumped core.
1490
1491 ** When the generated parser lacks debugging code, YYDEBUG is now 0
1492 (as POSIX requires) instead of being undefined.
1493
1494 ** User Actions
1495 Bison has always permitted actions such as { $$ = $1 }: it adds the
1496 ending semicolon. Now if in Yacc compatibility mode, the semicolon
1497 is no longer output: one has to write { $$ = $1; }.
1498
1499 ** Better C++ compliance
1500 The output parsers try to respect C++ namespaces.
1501 [This turned out to be a failed experiment, and it was reverted later.]
1502
1503 ** Reduced Grammars
1504 Fixed bugs when reporting useless nonterminals.
1505
1506 ** 64 bit hosts
1507 The parsers work properly on 64 bit hosts.
1508
1509 ** Error messages
1510 Some calls to strerror resulted in scrambled or missing error messages.
1511
1512 ** %expect
1513 When the number of shift/reduce conflicts is correct, don't issue
1514 any warning.
1515
1516 ** The verbose report includes the rule line numbers.
1517
1518 ** Rule line numbers are fixed in traces.
1519
1520 ** Swedish translation
1521
1522 ** Parse errors
1523 Verbose parse error messages from the parsers are better looking.
1524 Before: parse error: unexpected `'/'', expecting `"number"' or `'-'' or `'(''
1525 Now: parse error: unexpected '/', expecting "number" or '-' or '('
1526
1527 ** Fixed parser memory leaks.
1528 When the generated parser was using malloc to extend its stacks, the
1529 previous allocations were not freed.
1530
1531 ** Fixed verbose output file.
1532 Some newlines were missing.
1533 Some conflicts in state descriptions were missing.
1534
1535 ** Fixed conflict report.
1536 Option -v was needed to get the result.
1537
1538 ** %expect
1539 Was not used.
1540 Mismatches are errors, not warnings.
1541
1542 ** Fixed incorrect processing of some invalid input.
1543
1544 ** Fixed CPP guards: 9foo.h uses BISON_9FOO_H instead of 9FOO_H.
1545
1546 ** Fixed some typos in the documentation.
1547
1548 ** %token MY_EOF 0 is supported.
1549 Before, MY_EOF was silently renumbered as 257.
1550
1551 ** doc/refcard.tex is updated.
1552
1553 ** %output, %file-prefix, %name-prefix.
1554 New.
1555
1556 ** --output
1557 New, aliasing "--output-file".
1558 \f
1559 * Changes in version 1.30, 2001-10-26:
1560
1561 ** "--defines" and "--graph" have now an optional argument which is the
1562 output file name. "-d" and "-g" do not change; they do not take any
1563 argument.
1564
1565 ** "%source_extension" and "%header_extension" are removed, failed
1566 experiment.
1567
1568 ** Portability fixes.
1569 \f
1570 * Changes in version 1.29, 2001-09-07:
1571
1572 ** The output file does not define const, as this caused problems when used
1573 with common autoconfiguration schemes. If you still use ancient compilers
1574 that lack const, compile with the equivalent of the C compiler option
1575 "-Dconst=". Autoconf's AC_C_CONST macro provides one way to do this.
1576
1577 ** Added "-g" and "--graph".
1578
1579 ** The Bison manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL.
1580
1581 ** The input and the output files has automatically a similar extension.
1582
1583 ** Russian translation added.
1584
1585 ** NLS support updated; should hopefully be less troublesome.
1586
1587 ** Added the old Bison reference card.
1588
1589 ** Added "--locations" and "%locations".
1590
1591 ** Added "-S" and "--skeleton".
1592
1593 ** "%raw", "-r", "--raw" is disabled.
1594
1595 ** Special characters are escaped when output. This solves the problems
1596 of the #line lines with path names including backslashes.
1597
1598 ** New directives.
1599 "%yacc", "%fixed_output_files", "%defines", "%no_parser", "%verbose",
1600 "%debug", "%source_extension" and "%header_extension".
1601
1602 ** @$
1603 Automatic location tracking.
1604 \f
1605 * Changes in version 1.28, 1999-07-06:
1606
1607 ** Should compile better now with K&R compilers.
1608
1609 ** Added NLS.
1610
1611 ** Fixed a problem with escaping the double quote character.
1612
1613 ** There is now a FAQ.
1614 \f
1615 * Changes in version 1.27:
1616
1617 ** The make rule which prevented bison.simple from being created on
1618 some systems has been fixed.
1619 \f
1620 * Changes in version 1.26:
1621
1622 ** Bison now uses Automake.
1623
1624 ** New mailing lists: <bug-bison@gnu.org> and <help-bison@gnu.org>.
1625
1626 ** Token numbers now start at 257 as previously documented, not 258.
1627
1628 ** Bison honors the TMPDIR environment variable.
1629
1630 ** A couple of buffer overruns have been fixed.
1631
1632 ** Problems when closing files should now be reported.
1633
1634 ** Generated parsers should now work even on operating systems which do
1635 not provide alloca().
1636 \f
1637 * Changes in version 1.25, 1995-10-16:
1638
1639 ** Errors in the input grammar are not fatal; Bison keeps reading
1640 the grammar file, and reports all the errors found in it.
1641
1642 ** Tokens can now be specified as multiple-character strings: for
1643 example, you could use "<=" for a token which looks like <=, instead
1644 of choosing a name like LESSEQ.
1645
1646 ** The %token_table declaration says to write a table of tokens (names
1647 and numbers) into the parser file. The yylex function can use this
1648 table to recognize multiple-character string tokens, or for other
1649 purposes.
1650
1651 ** The %no_lines declaration says not to generate any #line preprocessor
1652 directives in the parser file.
1653
1654 ** The %raw declaration says to use internal Bison token numbers, not
1655 Yacc-compatible token numbers, when token names are defined as macros.
1656
1657 ** The --no-parser option produces the parser tables without including
1658 the parser engine; a project can now use its own parser engine.
1659 The actions go into a separate file called NAME.act, in the form of
1660 a switch statement body.
1661 \f
1662 * Changes in version 1.23:
1663
1664 The user can define YYPARSE_PARAM as the name of an argument to be
1665 passed into yyparse. The argument should have type void *. It should
1666 actually point to an object. Grammar actions can access the variable
1667 by casting it to the proper pointer type.
1668
1669 Line numbers in output file corrected.
1670 \f
1671 * Changes in version 1.22:
1672
1673 --help option added.
1674 \f
1675 * Changes in version 1.20:
1676
1677 Output file does not redefine const for C++.
1678
1679 -----
1680
1681 Copyright (C) 1995-2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
1682
1683 This file is part of Bison, the GNU Parser Generator.
1684
1685 This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
1686 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
1687 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
1688 (at your option) any later version.
1689
1690 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
1691 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
1692 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
1693 GNU General Public License for more details.
1694
1695 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
1696 along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
1697
1698 LocalWords: yacc YYBACKUP glr GCC lalr ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException nullptr
1699 LocalWords: cplusplus liby rpl fprintf mfcalc Wyacc stmt cond expr mk sym lr
1700 LocalWords: IELR ielr Lookahead YYERROR nonassoc LALR's api lookaheads yychar
1701 LocalWords: destructor lookahead YYRHSLOC YYLLOC Rhs ifndef YYFAIL cpp sr rr
1702 LocalWords: preprocessor initializer Wno Wnone Werror FreeBSD prec livelocks
1703 LocalWords: Solaris AIX UX RHEL Tru LHS gcc's Wundef YYENABLE NLS YYLTYPE VCG
1704 LocalWords: yyerror cpp's Wunused yylval yylloc prepend yyparse yylex yypush
1705 LocalWords: Graphviz xml nonterminals midrule destructor's YYSTYPE typedef ly
1706 LocalWords: CHR chr printf stdout namespace preprocessing enum pre include's
1707 LocalWords: YYRECOVERING nonfree destructors YYABORT YYACCEPT params enums de
1708 LocalWords: struct yystype DJGPP lex param Haible NUM alloca YYSTACK NUL goto
1709 LocalWords: YYMAXDEPTH Unescaped UCNs YYLTYPE's yyltype typedefs inline Yaccs
1710 LocalWords: Heriyanto Reenable dprec Hilfinger Eggert MYEOF Folle Menezes EOF
1711 LocalWords: Lackovic define's itemset Groff Gettext malloc NEWS'ed YYDEBUG
1712 LocalWords: namespaces strerror const autoconfiguration Dconst Autoconf's FDL
1713 LocalWords: Automake TMPDIR LESSEQ
1714
1715 Local Variables:
1716 mode: outline
1717 fill-column: 76
1718 End: