+* value_components_used
+Was defined but not used: where was it coming from? It can't be to
+check if %union is used, since the user is free to $<foo>n on her
+union, doesn't she?
+
+* yyerror, yyprint interface
+It should be improved, in particular when using Bison features such as
+locations, and YYPARSE_PARAMS. For the time being, it is recommended
+to #define yyerror and yyprint to steal internal variables...
+
+* documentation
+Explain $axiom (and maybe change its name: BTYacc names it `goal',
+byacc `$accept' probably based on AT&T Yacc, Meta `Start'...).
+Complete the glossary (item, axiom, ?). Should we also rename `$'?
+BYacc uses `$end'. `$eof' is attracting, but after all we may be
+parsing a string, a stream etc.
+
+* Error messages
+Some are really funky. For instance
+
+ type clash (`%s' `%s') on default action
+
+is really weird. Revisit them all.
+
+* Report documentation
+Extend with error productions. The hard part will probably be finding
+the right rule so that a single state does not exhibit too many yet
+undocumented ``features''. Maybe an empty action ought to be
+presented too. Shall we try to make a single grammar with all these
+features, or should we have several very small grammars?
+
+* Documentation
+Some history of Bison and some bibliography would be most welcome.
+Are there any Texinfo standards for bibliography?
+
+* Several %unions
+I think this is a pleasant (but useless currently) feature, but in the
+future, I want a means to %include other bits of grammars, and _then_
+it will be important for the various bits to define their needs in
+%union.
+
+When implementing multiple-%union support, bare the following in mind:
+
+- when --yacc, this must be flagged as an error. Don't make it fatal
+ though.
+
+- The #line must now appear *inside* the definition of yystype.
+ Something like
+
+ {
+ #line 12 "foo.y"
+ int ival;
+ #line 23 "foo.y"
+ char *sval;
+ }
+
+* --report=conflict-path
+Provide better assistance for understanding the conflicts by providing
+a sample text exhibiting the (LALR) ambiguity. See the paper from
+DeRemer and Penello: they already provide the algorithm.
+
+* Coding system independence
+Paul notes:
+
+ Currently Bison assumes 8-bit bytes (i.e. that UCHAR_MAX is
+ 255). It also assumes that the 8-bit character encoding is
+ the same for the invocation of 'bison' as it is for the
+ invocation of 'cc', but this is not necessarily true when
+ people run bison on an ASCII host and then use cc on an EBCDIC
+ host. I don't think these topics are worth our time
+ addressing (unless we find a gung-ho volunteer for EBCDIC or
+ PDP-10 ports :-) but they should probably be documented
+ somewhere.
+
+* Unit rules
+Maybe we could expand unit rules, i.e., transform
+
+ exp: arith | bool;
+ arith: exp '+' exp;
+ bool: exp '&' exp;
+
+into
+
+ exp: exp '+' exp | exp '&' exp;
+
+when there are no actions. This can significantly speed up some
+grammars. I can't find the papers. In particular the book `LR
+parsing: Theory and Practice' is impossible to find, but according to
+`Parsing Techniques: a Practical Guide', it includes information about
+this issue. Does anybody have it?
+
+* Stupid error messages
+An example shows it easily:
+
+src/bison/tests % ./testsuite -k calc,location,error-verbose -l
+GNU Bison 1.49a test suite test groups:
+
+ NUM: FILENAME:LINE TEST-GROUP-NAME
+ KEYWORDS
+
+ 51: calc.at:440 Calculator --locations --yyerror-verbose
+ 52: calc.at:442 Calculator --defines --locations --name-prefix=calc --verbose --yacc --yyerror-verbose
+ 54: calc.at:445 Calculator --debug --defines --locations --name-prefix=calc --verbose --yacc --yyerror-verbose
+src/bison/tests % ./testsuite 51 -d
+## --------------------------- ##
+## GNU Bison 1.49a test suite. ##
+## --------------------------- ##
+ 51: calc.at:440 ok
+## ---------------------------- ##
+## All 1 tests were successful. ##
+## ---------------------------- ##
+src/bison/tests % cd ./testsuite.dir/51
+tests/testsuite.dir/51 % echo "()" | ./calc
+1.2-1.3: parse error, unexpected ')', expecting error or "number" or '-' or '('
+
+* read_pipe.c
+This is not portable to DOS for instance. Implement a more portable
+scheme. Sources of inspiration include GNU diff, and Free Recode.
+
+* Memory leaks in the generator
+A round of memory leak clean ups would be most welcome. Dmalloc,
+Checker GCC, Electric Fence, or Valgrind: you chose your tool.
+
+* --graph
+Show reductions. []
+
+* Broken options ?
+** %no-lines [ok]
+** %no-parser []
+** %pure-parser []
+** %token-table []
+** Options which could use parse_dquoted_param ().
+Maybe transfered in lex.c.
+*** %skeleton [ok]
+*** %output []
+*** %file-prefix []
+*** %name-prefix []
+
+** Skeleton strategy. []
+Must we keep %no-parser?
+ %token-table?
+*** New skeletons. []
projects / bison.git / blobdiff