+@node Semantic Predicates
+@subsection Controlling a Parse with Arbitrary Predicates
+@findex %?
+@cindex Semantic predicates in @acronym{GLR} parsers
+
+In addition to the @code{%dprec} and @code{%merge} directives,
+@acronym{GLR} parsers
+allow you to reject parses on the basis of arbitrary computations executed
+in user code, without having Bison treat this rejection as an error
+if there are alternative parses. (This feature is experimental and may
+evolve. We welcome user feedback.) For example,
+
+@smallexample
+widget :
+ %?@{ new_syntax @} "widget" id new_args @{ $$ = f($3, $4); @}
+ | %?@{ !new_syntax @} "widget" id old_args @{ $$ = f($3, $4); @}
+ ;
+@end smallexample
+
+@noindent
+is one way to allow the same parser to handle two different syntaxes for
+widgets. The clause preceded by @code{%?} is treated like an ordinary
+action, except that its text is treated as an expression and is always
+evaluated immediately (even when in nondeterministic mode). If the
+expression yields 0 (false), the clause is treated as a syntax error,
+which, in a nondeterministic parser, causes the stack in which it is reduced
+to die. In a deterministic parser, it acts like YYERROR.
+
+As the example shows, predicates otherwise look like semantic actions, and
+therefore you must be take them into account when determining the numbers
+to use for denoting the semantic values of right-hand side symbols.
+Predicate actions, however, have no defined value, and may not be given
+labels.
+
+There is a subtle difference between semantic predicates and ordinary
+actions in nondeterministic mode, since the latter are deferred.
+For example, we could try to rewrite the previous example as
+
+@smallexample
+widget :
+ @{ if (!new_syntax) YYERROR; @} "widget" id new_args @{ $$ = f($3, $4); @}
+ | @{ if (new_syntax) YYERROR; @} "widget" id old_args @{ $$ = f($3, $4); @}
+ ;
+@end smallexample
+
+@noindent
+(reversing the sense of the predicate tests to cause an error when they are
+false). However, this
+does @emph{not} have the same effect if @code{new_args} and @code{old_args}
+have overlapping syntax.
+Since the mid-rule actions testing @code{new_syntax} are deferred,
+a @acronym{GLR} parser first encounters the unresolved ambiguous reduction
+for cases where @code{new_args} and @code{old_args} recognize the same string
+@emph{before} performing the tests of @code{new_syntax}. It therefore
+reports an error.
+
+Finally, be careful in writing predicates: deferred actions have not been
+evaluated, so that using them in a predicate will have undefined effects.
+
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