Bison News
----------
-Changes in version 2.0a, 2005-05-22:
+Changes in version 2.3+:
+
+* Except for LALR(1) parsers in C with POSIX Yacc emulation enabled (with `-y',
+ `--yacc', or `%yacc'), Bison no longer generates #define statements for
+ associating token numbers with token names. Removing the #define statements
+ helps to sanitize the global namespace during preprocessing, but POSIX Yacc
+ requires them. Bison still generates an enum for token names in all cases.
+
+* Handling of traditional Yacc prologue blocks is now more consistent but
+ potentially incompatible with previous releases of Bison.
+
+ As before, you declare prologue blocks in your grammar file with the
+ `%{ ... %}' syntax. To generate the pre-prologue, Bison concatenates all
+ prologue blocks that you've declared before the first %union. To generate
+ the post-prologue, Bison concatenates all prologue blocks that you've
+ declared after the first %union.
+
+ Previous releases of Bison inserted the pre-prologue into both the header
+ file and the code file in all cases except for LALR(1) parsers in C. In the
+ latter case, Bison inserted it only into the code file. For parsers in C++,
+ the point of insertion was before any token definitions (which associate
+ token numbers with names). For parsers in C, the point of insertion was
+ after the token definitions.
+
+ Now, Bison never inserts the pre-prologue into the header file. In the code
+ file, it always inserts it before the token definitions.
+
+* Bison now provides a more flexible alternative to the traditional Yacc
+ prologue blocks: %before-header, %start-header, %end-header, and
+ %after-header.
+
+ For example, the following declaration order in the grammar file reflects the
+ order in which Bison will output these code blocks. However, you are free to
+ declare these code blocks in your grammar file in whatever order is most
+ convenient for you:
+
+ %before-header {
+ /* Bison treats this block like a pre-prologue block: it inserts it into
+ * the code file before the contents of the header file. It does *not*
+ * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to put
+ * #include's that you want at the top of your code file. A common
+ * example is `#include "system.h"'. */
+ }
+ %start-header {
+ /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file.
+ * In both files, the point of insertion is before any Bison-generated
+ * token, semantic type, location type, and class definitions. This is a
+ * good place to define %union dependencies, for example. */
+ }
+ %union {
+ /* Unlike the traditional Yacc prologue blocks, the output order for the
+ * new %*-header blocks is not affected by their declaration position
+ * relative to any %union in the grammar file. */
+ }
+ %end-header {
+ /* Bison inserts this block into both the header file and the code file.
+ * In both files, the point of insertion is after the Bison-generated
+ * definitions. This is a good place to declare or define public
+ * functions or data structures that depend on the Bison-generated
+ * definitions. */
+ }
+ %after-header {
+ /* Bison treats this block like a post-prologue block: it inserts it into
+ * the code file after the contents of the header file. It does *not*
+ * insert it into the header file. This is a good place to declare or
+ * define internal functions or data structures that depend on the
+ * Bison-generated definitions. */
+ }
+
+ If you have multiple occurrences of any one of the above declarations, Bison
+ will concatenate the contents in declaration order.
+
+* The option `--report=look-ahead' has been changed to `--report=lookahead'.
+ The old spelling still works, but is not documented and may be removed
+ in a future release.
+
+Changes in version 2.3, 2006-06-05:
+
+* GLR grammars should now use `YYRECOVERING ()' instead of `YYRECOVERING',
+ for compatibility with LALR(1) grammars.
+
+* It is now documented that any definition of YYSTYPE or YYLTYPE should
+ be to a type name that does not contain parentheses or brackets.
+
+Changes in version 2.2, 2006-05-19:
+
+* The distribution terms for all Bison-generated parsers now permit
+ using the parsers in nonfree programs. Previously, this permission
+ was granted only for Bison-generated LALR(1) parsers in C.
+
+* %name-prefix changes the namespace name in C++ outputs.
+
+* The C++ parsers export their token_type.
+
+* Bison now allows multiple %union declarations, and concatenates
+ their contents together.
+
+* New warning: unused values
+ Right-hand side symbols whose values are not used are reported,
+ if the symbols have destructors. For instance:
+
+ exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; }
+ | exp "+" exp
+ ;
+
+ will trigger a warning about $$ and $5 in the first rule, and $3 in
+ the second ($1 is copied to $$ by the default rule). This example
+ most likely contains three errors, and could be rewritten as:
+
+ exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp
+ { $$ = $1 ? $3 : $5; free ($1 ? $5 : $3); free ($1); }
+ | exp "+" exp
+ { $$ = $1 ? $1 : $3; if ($1) free ($3); }
+ ;
+
+ However, if the original actions were really intended, memory leaks
+ and all, the warnings can be suppressed by letting Bison believe the
+ values are used, e.g.:
+
+ exp: exp "?" exp ":" exp { $1 ? $1 : $3; (void) ($$, $5); }
+ | exp "+" exp { $$ = $1; (void) $3; }
+ ;
+
+ If there are mid-rule actions, the warning is issued if no action
+ uses it. The following triggers no warning: $1 and $3 are used.
+
+ exp: exp { push ($1); } '+' exp { push ($3); sum (); };
+
+ The warning is intended to help catching lost values and memory leaks.
+ If a value is ignored, its associated memory typically is not reclaimed.
+
+* %destructor vs. YYABORT, YYACCEPT, and YYERROR.
+ Destructors are now called when user code invokes YYABORT, YYACCEPT,
+ and YYERROR, for all objects on the stack, other than objects
+ corresponding to the right-hand side of the current rule.
+
+* %expect, %expect-rr
+ Incorrect numbers of expected conflicts are now actual errors,
+ instead of warnings.
+
+* GLR, YACC parsers.
+ The %parse-params are available in the destructors (and the
+ experimental printers) as per the documentation.
+
+* Bison now warns if it finds a stray `$' or `@' in an action.
+
+* %require "VERSION"
+ This specifies that the grammar file depends on features implemented
+ in Bison version VERSION or higher.
-* Bison-generated C parsers use the _ macro to translate strings from
- English to the user's language, e.g., _("syntax error"). By default,
- _ is defined to be a no-op macro so the strings are not translated.
+* lalr1.cc: The token and value types are now class members.
+ The tokens were defined as free form enums and cpp macros. YYSTYPE
+ was defined as a free form union. They are now class members:
+ tokens are enumerations of the `yy::parser::token' struct, and the
+ semantic values have the `yy::parser::semantic_type' type.
-* When generating verbose diagnostics, Bison-generated C parsers no longer
+ If you do not want or can update to this scheme, the directive
+ `%define "global_tokens_and_yystype" "1"' triggers the global
+ definition of tokens and YYSTYPE. This change is suitable both
+ for previous releases of Bison, and this one.
+
+ If you wish to update, then make sure older version of Bison will
+ fail using `%require "2.2"'.
+
+* DJGPP support added.
+\f
+Changes in version 2.1, 2005-09-16:
+
+* The C++ lalr1.cc skeleton supports %lex-param.
+
+* Bison-generated parsers now support the translation of diagnostics like
+ "syntax error" into languages other than English. The default
+ language is still English. For details, please see the new
+ Internationalization section of the Bison manual. Software
+ distributors should also see the new PACKAGING file. Thanks to
+ Bruno Haible for this new feature.
+
+* Wording in the Bison-generated parsers has been changed slightly to
+ simplify translation. In particular, the message "memory exhausted"
+ has replaced "parser stack overflow", as the old message was not
+ always accurate for modern Bison-generated parsers.
+
+* Destructors are now called when the parser aborts, for all symbols left
+ behind on the stack. Also, the start symbol is now destroyed after a
+ successful parse. In both cases, the behavior was formerly inconsistent.
+
+* When generating verbose diagnostics, Bison-generated parsers no longer
quote the literal strings associated with tokens. For example, for
a syntax error associated with '%token NUM "number"' they might
print 'syntax error, unexpected number' instead of 'syntax error,
unexpected "number"'.
-
+\f
Changes in version 2.0, 2004-12-25:
* Possibly-incompatible changes
This is a GNU extension.
- The option `--report=lookahead' was changed to `--report=look-ahead'.
- The old spelling still works, but is not documented and will be
- removed.
+ [However, this was changed back after 2.3.]
- Experimental %destructor support has been added to lalr1.cc.
produces additional information:
- itemset
complete the core item sets with their closure
- - lookahead [changed to `look-ahead' in 1.875e and later]
- explicitly associate look-ahead tokens to items
+ - lookahead [changed to `look-ahead' in 1.875e through 2.3, but changed back]
+ explicitly associate lookahead tokens to items
- solved
describe shift/reduce conflicts solving.
Bison used to systematically output this information on top of
alloca is used only when compiled with GCC, to avoid portability
problems as on AIX.
+* yyparse now returns 2 if memory is exhausted; formerly it dumped core.
+
* When the generated parser lacks debugging code, YYDEBUG is now 0
(as POSIX requires) instead of being undefined.
-----
-Copyright (C) 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005
-Free Software Foundation, Inc.
+Copyright (C) 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003,
+2004, 2005, 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This file is part of Bison, the GNU Compiler Compiler.