-*- outline -*-
+* Header guards
+
+From Franc,ois: should we keep the directory part in the CPP guard?
+
+
+* Yacc.c: CPP Macros
+
+Do some people use YYPURE, YYLSP_NEEDED like we do in the test suite?
+They should not: it is not documented. But if they need to, let's
+find something clean (not like YYLSP_NEEDED...).
+
+
* URGENT: Documenting C++ output
Write a first documentation for C++ output.
-* Report and GLR
+
+* Documentation
+Before releasing, make sure the documentation ("Understanding your
+parser") refers to the current `output' format.
+
+
+* GLR & C++
+Currently, the GLR parser cannot compile with a C++ compiler.
+
+
+* Report
+
+** GLR
How would Paul like to display the conflicted actions? In particular,
what when two reductions are possible on a given lookahead, but one is
part of $default. Should we make the two reductions explicit, or just
keep $default? See the following point.
-* Report and Disabled Reductions
+** Disabled Reductions
See `tests/conflicts.at (Defaulted Conflicted Reduction)', and decide
what we want to do.
-* 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?
+** 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?
-* 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...
+** --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.
-* 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
+* Extensions
- type clash (`%s' `%s') on default action
+** %destructor
+I think we should document it as experimental, and allow its use in
+the next releases. But we also need to port it to GLR. What about
+lalr1.cc? Well, read what Hans reported, maybe we don't want
+%detructor. On the other hand, there is no reason not to provide it:
+users can avoid its use.
-is really weird. Revisit them all.
+** $foo
+Have a look at the Lemon parser generator: instead of $1, $2 etc. they
+can name the values. This is much more pleasant. For instance:
-* 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?
+ exp (res): exp (a) '+' exp (b) { $res = $a + $b; };
-* Documentation
-Some history of Bison and some bibliography would be most welcome.
-Are there any Texinfo standards for bibliography?
+I love this. I have been bitten too often by the removal of the
+symbol, and forgetting to shift all the $n to $n-1. If you are
+unlucky, it compiles...
+
+** $-1
+We should find a means to provide an access to values deep in the
+stack. For instance, instead of
+
+ baz: qux { $$ = $<foo>-1 + $<bar>0 + $1; }
+
+we should be able to have:
-* Several %unions
+ foo($foo) bar($bar) baz($bar): qux($qux) { $baz = $foo + $bar + $qux; }
+
+Or something like this.
+
+
+** yysymprint interface
+It should be improved, in particular when using Bison features such as
+locations, and YYPARSE_PARAMS. For the time being, it is almost
+recommended to yyprint to steal internal variables...
+
+** 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
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.
+** %if and the like
+It should be possible to have %if/%else/%endif. The implementation is
+not clear: should it be lexical or syntactic. Vadim Maslow thinks it
+must be in the scanner: we must not parse what is in a switched off
+part of %if. Akim Demaille thinks it should be in the parser, so as
+to avoid falling into another CPP mistake.
-* Coding system independence
-Paul notes:
+** -D, --define-muscle NAME=VALUE
+To define muscles via cli. Or maybe support directly NAME=VALUE?
- 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
`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.
+
+
+* Documentation
+
+** History/Bibliography
+Some history of Bison and some bibliography would be most welcome.
+Are there any Texinfo standards for bibliography?
+
+
+
+* Java, Fortran, etc.
+
+
+** Java
+
+There are a couple of proposed outputs:
+
+- BYACC/J
+ which is based on Byacc.
+ <http://troi.lincom-asg.com/~rjamison/byacc/>
+
+- Bison Java
+ which is based on Bison.
+ <http://www.goice.co.jp/member/mo/hack-progs/bison-java.html>
+
+Sébastien Serrurier (serrur_s@epita.fr) is working on this: he is
+expected to contact the authors, design the output, and implement it
+into Bison.
+
+
+* 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.
+
+
* --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. []
* src/print_graph.c
Find the best graph parameters. []
* doc/bison.texinfo
** Update
informations about ERROR_VERBOSE. []
-** Add explainations about
+** Add explanations about
skeleton muscles. []
%skeleton. []
** tests/pure-parser.at []
New tests.
-* input synclines
-Some users create their foo.y files, and equip them with #line. Bison
-should recognize these, and preserve them.
-
* BTYacc
-See if we can integrate backtracking in Bison. Contact the BTYacc
-maintainers.
+See if we can integrate backtracking in Bison. Charles-Henri de
+Boysson <de-boy_c@epita.fr> is working on this, and already has some
+results. Vadim Maslow, the maintainer of BTYacc was contacted, and we
+stay in touch with him. Adjusting the Bison grammar parser will be
+needed to support some extra BTYacc features. This is less urgent.
+
+** Keeping the conflicted actions
+First, analyze the differences between byacc and btyacc (I'm referring
+to the executables). Find where the conflicts are preserved.
+
+** Compare with the GLR tables
+See how isomorphic the way BTYacc and the way the GLR adjustments in
+Bison are compatible. *As much as possible* one should try to use the
+same implementation in the Bison executables. I insist: it should be
+very feasible to use the very same conflict tables.
+
+** Adjust the skeletons
+Import the skeletons for C and C++.
+
+** Improve the skeletons
+Have them support yysymprint, yydestruct and so forth.
-* RR conflicts
-See if we can use precedence between rules to solve RR conflicts. See
-what POSIX says.
* Precedence
+
+** Partial order
It is unfortunate that there is a total order for precedence. It
makes it impossible to have modular precedence information. We should
-move to partial orders.
+move to partial orders (sounds like series/parallel orders to me).
This will be possible with a Bison parser for the grammar, as it will
make it much easier to extend the grammar.
+** Correlation b/w precedence and associativity
+Also, I fail to understand why we have to assign the same
+associativity to operators with the same precedence. For instance,
+why can't I decide that the precedence of * and / is the same, but the
+latter is nonassoc?
+
+If there is really no profound motivation, we should find a new syntax
+to allow specifying this.
+
+** RR conflicts
+See if we can use precedence between rules to solve RR conflicts. See
+what POSIX says.
+
+
* $undefined
From Hans:
- If the Bison generated parser experiences an undefined number in the
Suggest: Change the name $undefined to undefined; looks better in outputs.
+
* Default Action
From Hans:
- For use with my C++ parser, I transported the "switch (yyn)" statement
Note: Robert Anisko handles this. He knows how to do it.
+
* Warnings
It would be nice to have warning support. See how Autoconf handles
them, it is fairly well described there. It would be very nice to
thought about it, and know many of the components that can be used to
implement it.
+
* Pre and post actions.
From: Florian Krohm <florian@edamail.fishkill.ibm.com>
Subject: YYACT_EPILOGUE