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