X-Git-Url: https://git.saurik.com/bison.git/blobdiff_plain/1a4648ff0d72c384f6fbfc46d9f23bbb28ca9300..b81a6e01dc7ef88cc506bb9da9022692d863a92a:/TODO diff --git a/TODO b/TODO index 62622a61..a3005240 100644 --- a/TODO +++ b/TODO @@ -1,30 +1,208 @@ -*- outline -*- -* tokendefs -This muscle should not exist: the information it contains should be -available from the rest of bison. Once the information public, get -rid of it. +* Header guards -* Broken options ?. -** %no-lines [ok] +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. + + +* 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. + +** Disabled Reductions +See `tests/conflicts.at (Defaulted Conflicted Reduction)', and decide +what we want to do. + +** 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? + +** --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. + + +* Extensions + +** %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. + +** $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: + + exp (res): exp (a) '+' exp (b) { $res = $a + $b; }; + +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 { $$ = $-1 + $0 + $1; } + +we should be able to have: + + 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 +%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; + } + +** %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. + +** -D, --define-muscle NAME=VALUE +To define muscles via cli. Or maybe support directly NAME=VALUE? + +** XML Output +There are couple of available extensions of Bison targeting some XML +output. Some day we should consider including them. One issue is +that they seem to be quite orthogonal to the parsing technique, and +seem to depend mostly on the possibility to have some code triggered +for each reduction. As a matter of fact, such hooks could also be +used to generate the yydebug traces. Some generic scheme probably +exists in there. + +XML output for GNU Bison and gcc + http://www.cs.may.ie/~jpower/Research/bisonXML/ + +XML output for GNU Bison + http://yaxx.sourceforge.net/ + +* 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? + + + +* 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. + + +- Bison Java + which is based on Bison. + + +Sebastien 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-parser [] -** %pure-parser [] -** %semantic-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/macrotab.[ch] -Removing warnings when compiling. (gcc-warnings). [ok] * src/print_graph.c Find the best graph parameters. [] @@ -32,11 +210,148 @@ Find the best graph parameters. [] * doc/bison.texinfo ** Update informations about ERROR_VERBOSE. [] -** Add explainations about +** Add explanations about skeleton muscles. [] %skeleton. [] -* testsuite. -** tests/reduce.at [ok] +* testsuite ** tests/pure-parser.at [] New tests. + +* BTYacc +See if we can integrate backtracking in Bison. Charles-Henri de +Boysson 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. + + +* 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 (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 +character range, that character is written out in diagnostic messages, an +addition to the $undefined value. + +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 +that Bison writes to the bison.simple skeleton file. This way, I can remove +the current default rule $$ = $1 implementation, which causes a double +assignment to $$ which may not be OK under C++, replacing it with a +"default:" part within the switch statement. + +Note that the default rule $$ = $1, when typed, is perfectly OK under C, +but in the C++ implementation I made, this rule is different from +$$ = $1. I therefore think that one should implement +a Bison option where every typed default rule is explicitly written out +(same typed ruled can of course be grouped together). + +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 +implement this in such a way that other programs could use +lib/warnings.[ch]. + +Don't work on this without first announcing you do, as I already have +thought about it, and know many of the components that can be used to +implement it. + + +* Pre and post actions. +From: Florian Krohm +Subject: YYACT_EPILOGUE +To: bug-bison@gnu.org +X-Sent: 1 week, 4 days, 14 hours, 38 minutes, 11 seconds ago + +The other day I had the need for explicitly building the parse tree. I +used %locations for that and defined YYLLOC_DEFAULT to call a function +that returns the tree node for the production. Easy. But I also needed +to assign the S-attribute to the tree node. That cannot be done in +YYLLOC_DEFAULT, because it is invoked before the action is executed. +The way I solved this was to define a macro YYACT_EPILOGUE that would +be invoked after the action. For reasons of symmetry I also added +YYACT_PROLOGUE. Although I had no use for that I can envision how it +might come in handy for debugging purposes. +All is needed is to add + +#if YYLSP_NEEDED + YYACT_EPILOGUE (yyval, (yyvsp - yylen), yylen, yyloc, (yylsp - yylen)); +#else + YYACT_EPILOGUE (yyval, (yyvsp - yylen), yylen); +#endif + +at the proper place to bison.simple. Ditto for YYACT_PROLOGUE. + +I was wondering what you think about adding YYACT_PROLOGUE/EPILOGUE +to bison. If you're interested, I'll work on a patch. + +* Move to Graphviz +Well, VCG seems really dead. Move to Graphviz instead. Also, equip +the parser with a means to create the (visual) parse tree. + +----- + +Copyright (C) 2001, 2002, 2003 Free Software Foundation, Inc. + +This file is part of GNU Bison. + +GNU Bison is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify +it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by +the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option) +any later version. + +GNU Bison is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, +but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of +MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the +GNU General Public License for more details. + +You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License +along with Bison; see the file COPYING. If not, write to +the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, +Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.