NEWS

   1 Bison News
   2 ----------
   3
   4 Changes in version 1.49a:
   5
   6 * Revert the C++ namespace changes introduced in 1.31, as they caused too
   7   many portability hassles.
   8
   9 * Items overflow
  10   Bison no longer dumps core when there are too many items, it just
  11   dies.
  12
  13 * Token end-of-file
  14   The token end of file may be specified by the user, in which case,
  15   the user symbol is used in the reports, the graphs, and the verbose
  16   error messages instead of `$', which remains being the defaults.
  17   For instance
  18      %token YYEOF 0
  19   or
  20      %token YYEOF 0 "end of file"
  21 \f
  22 Changes in version 1.31, 2002-01-14:
  23
  24 * Many Bug Fixes
  25
  26 * GNU Gettext and %expect
  27   GNU Gettext asserts 10 s/r conflicts, but there are 7.  Now that
  28   Bison dies on incorrect %expectations, we fear there will be
  29   too many bug reports for Gettext, so _for the time being_, %expect
  30   does not trigger an error when the input file is named `plural.y'.
  31
  32 * Use of alloca in parsers
  33   If YYSTACK_USE_ALLOCA is defined to 0, then the parsers will use
  34   malloc exclusively.  Since 1.29, but was not NEWS'ed.
  35
  36   alloca is used only when compiled with GCC, to avoid portability
  37   problems as on AIX.
  38
  39 * When the generated parser lacks debugging code, YYDEBUG is now 0
  40   (as POSIX requires) instead of being undefined.
  41
  42 * User Actions
  43   Bison has always permitted actions such as { $$ = $1 }: it adds the
  44   ending semicolon.  Now if in Yacc compatibility mode, the semicolon
  45   is no longer output: one has to write { $$ = $1; }.
  46
  47 * Better C++ compliance
  48   The output parsers try to respect C++ namespaces.
  49
  50 * Reduced Grammars
  51   Fixed bugs when reporting useless nonterminals.
  52
  53 * 64 bit hosts
  54   The parsers work properly on 64 bit hosts.
  55
  56 * Error messages
  57   Some calls to strerror resulted in scrambled or missing error messages.
  58
  59 * %expect
  60   When the number of shift/reduce conflicts is correct, don't issue
  61   any warning.
  62
  63 * The verbose report includes the rule line numbers.
  64
  65 * Rule line numbers are fixed in traces.
  66
  67 * Swedish translation
  68
  69 * Parse errors
  70   Verbose parse error messages from the parsers are better looking.
  71   Before: parse error: unexpected `'/'', expecting `"number"' or `'-'' or `'(''
  72      Now: parse error: unexpected '/', expecting "number" or '-' or '('
  73
  74 * Fixed parser memory leaks.
  75   When the generated parser was using malloc to extend its stacks, the
  76   previous allocations were not freed.
  77
  78 * Fixed verbose output file.
  79   Some newlines were missing.
  80   Some conflicts in state descriptions were missing.
  81
  82 * Fixed conflict report.
  83   Option -v was needed to get the result.
  84
  85 * %expect
  86   Was not used.
  87   Mismatches are errors, not warnings.
  88
  89 * Fixed incorrect processing of some invalid input.
  90
  91 * Fixed CPP guards: 9foo.h uses BISON_9FOO_H instead of 9FOO_H.
  92
  93 * Fixed some typos in the documentation.
  94
  95 * %token MY_EOF 0 is supported.
  96   Before, MY_EOF was silently renumbered as 257.
  97
  98 * doc/refcard.tex is updated.
  99
 100 * %output, %file-prefix, %name-prefix.
 101   New.
 102
 103 * --output
 104   New, aliasing `--output-file'.
 105 \f
 106 Changes in version 1.30:
 107
 108 * `--defines' and `--graph' have now an optionnal argument which is the
 109   output file name. `-d' and `-g' do not change, they do not take any
 110   argument.
 111
 112 * `%source_extension' and `%header_extension' are removed, failed
 113   experiment.
 114
 115 * Portability fixes.
 116 \f
 117 Changes in version 1.29, 2001-09-07:
 118
 119 * The output file does not define const, as this caused problems when used
 120   with common autoconfiguration schemes.  If you still use ancient compilers
 121   that lack const, compile with the equivalent of the C compiler option
 122   `-Dconst='.  autoconf's AC_C_CONST macro provides one way to do this.
 123
 124 * Added `-g' and `--graph'.
 125
 126 * The Bison manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL.
 127
 128 * The input and the output files has automatically a similar extension.
 129
 130 * Russian translation added.
 131
 132 * NLS support updated; should hopefully be less troublesome.
 133
 134 * Added the old Bison reference card.
 135
 136 * Added `--locations' and `%locations'.
 137
 138 * Added `-S' and `--skeleton'.
 139
 140 * `%raw', `-r', `--raw' is disabled.
 141
 142 * Special characters are escaped when output.  This solves the problems
 143   of the #line lines with path names including backslashes.
 144
 145 * New directives.
 146   `%yacc', `%fixed_output_files', `%defines', `%no_parser', `%verbose',
 147   `%debug', `%source_extension' and `%header_extension'.
 148
 149 * @$
 150   Automatic location tracking.
 151 \f
 152 Changes in version 1.28, 1999-07-06:
 153
 154 * Should compile better now with K&R compilers.
 155
 156 * Added NLS.
 157
 158 * Fixed a problem with escaping the double quote character.
 159
 160 * There is now a FAQ.
 161 \f
 162 Changes in version 1.27:
 163
 164 * The make rule which prevented bison.simple from being created on
 165   some systems has been fixed.
 166 \f
 167 Changes in version 1.26:
 168
 169 * Bison now uses automake.
 170
 171 * New mailing lists: <bug-bison@gnu.org> and <help-bison@gnu.org>.
 172
 173 * Token numbers now start at 257 as previously documented, not 258.
 174
 175 * Bison honors the TMPDIR environment variable.
 176
 177 * A couple of buffer overruns have been fixed.
 178
 179 * Problems when closing files should now be reported.
 180
 181 * Generated parsers should now work even on operating systems which do
 182   not provide alloca().
 183 \f
 184 Changes in version 1.25, 1995-10-16:
 185
 186 * Errors in the input grammar are not fatal; Bison keeps reading
 187 the grammar file, and reports all the errors found in it.
 188
 189 * Tokens can now be specified as multiple-character strings: for
 190 example, you could use "<=" for a token which looks like <=, instead
 191 of chosing a name like LESSEQ.
 192
 193 * The %token_table declaration says to write a table of tokens (names
 194 and numbers) into the parser file.  The yylex function can use this
 195 table to recognize multiple-character string tokens, or for other
 196 purposes.
 197
 198 * The %no_lines declaration says not to generate any #line preprocessor
 199 directives in the parser file.
 200
 201 * The %raw declaration says to use internal Bison token numbers, not
 202 Yacc-compatible token numbers, when token names are defined as macros.
 203
 204 * The --no-parser option produces the parser tables without including
 205 the parser engine; a project can now use its own parser engine.
 206 The actions go into a separate file called NAME.act, in the form of
 207 a switch statement body.
 208 \f
 209 Changes in version 1.23:
 210
 211 The user can define YYPARSE_PARAM as the name of an argument to be
 212 passed into yyparse.  The argument should have type void *.  It should
 213 actually point to an object.  Grammar actions can access the variable
 214 by casting it to the proper pointer type.
 215
 216 Line numbers in output file corrected.
 217 \f
 218 Changes in version 1.22:
 219
 220 --help option added.
 221 \f
 222 Changes in version 1.20:
 223
 224 Output file does not redefine const for C++.
 225
 226 Local Variables:
 227 mode: outline
 228 End: