X-Git-Url: https://git.saurik.com/bison.git/blobdiff_plain/402b123d0c77e85c8baaad80c7ad1051fb8378e6..b987342bab23bb8c12b15cfbbda73aa6ff09f238:/NEWS diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS index fe1144ec..76d8f4b2 100644 --- a/NEWS +++ b/NEWS @@ -3,15 +3,167 @@ Bison News * Changes in version ?.? (????-??-??): +** Java skeleton improvements: + + The constants for token names were moved to the Lexer interface. + Also, it is possible to add code to the parser's constructors using + "%code init" and "%define init_throws". + +** Variable api.tokens.prefix + + The variable api.tokens.prefix changes the way tokens are identified in + the generated files. This is especially useful to avoid collisions + with identifiers in the target language. For instance + + %token FILE for ERROR + %define api.tokens.prefix "TOK_" + %% + start: FILE for ERROR; + + will generate the definition of the symbols TOK_FILE, TOK_for, and + TOK_ERROR in the generated sources. In particular, the scanner must + use these prefixed token names, although the grammar itself still + uses the short names (as in the sample rule given above). + +* Changes in version 2.5 (????-??-??): + +** IELR(1) and Canonical LR(1) Support + + IELR(1) is a minimal LR(1) parser table generation algorithm. That + is, given any context-free grammar, IELR(1) generates parser tables + with the full language recognition power of canonical LR(1) but with + nearly the same number of parser states as LALR(1). This reduction in + parser states is often an order of magnitude. More importantly, + because canonical LR(1)'s extra parser states may contain duplicate + conflicts in the case of non-LR(1) grammars, the number of conflicts + for IELR(1) is often an order of magnitude less as well. This can + significantly reduce the complexity of developing of a grammar. + + Bison can now generate IELR(1) and canonical LR(1) parser tables in + place of its traditional LALR(1) parser tables, which remain the + default. You can specify the type of parser tables in the grammar + file with these directives: + + %define lr.type "LALR" + %define lr.type "IELR" + %define lr.type "canonical LR" + + The default reduction optimization in the parser tables can also be + adjusted using `%define lr.default-reductions'. See the documentation + for `%define lr.type' and `%define lr.default-reductions' in the + section `Bison Declaration Summary' in the Bison manual for the + details. + + These features are experimental. More user feedback will help to + stabilize them. + +** %define can now be invoked via the command line. + + Each of these bison command-line options + + -D NAME=VALUE + --define=NAME=VALUE + + is equivalent to this grammar file declaration + + %define NAME "VALUE" + + for any NAME and VALUE. Omitting `=VALUE' on the command line is + equivalent to omitting `"VALUE"' in the declaration. + +** %define variables renamed. + + The following %define variables + + api.push_pull + lr.keep_unreachable_states + + have been renamed to + + api.push-pull + lr.keep-unreachable-states + + The old names are now deprecated but will be maintained indefinitely + for backward compatibility. + +** Symbols names + + Consistently with directives (such as %error-verbose) and variables + (e.g. push-pull), symbol names may include dashes in any position, + similarly to periods and underscores. This is GNU extension over + POSIX Yacc whose use is reported by -Wyacc, and rejected in Yacc + mode (--yacc). + +** Temporary hack for adding a semicolon to the user action. + + Previously, Bison appended a semicolon to every user action for + reductions when the output language defaulted to C (specifically, when + neither %yacc, %language, %skeleton, or equivalent command-line + options were specified). This allowed actions such as + + exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 }; + + instead of + + exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; }; + + As a first step in removing this misfeature, Bison now issues a + warning when it appends a semicolon. Moreover, in cases where Bison + cannot easily determine whether a semicolon is needed (for example, an + action ending with a cpp directive or a braced compound initializer), + it no longer appends one. Thus, the C compiler might now complain + about a missing semicolon where it did not before. Future releases of + Bison will cease to append semicolons entirely. + * Changes in version 2.4.2 (????-??-??): +** %code is now a permanent feature. + + A traditional Yacc prologue directive is written in the form: + + %{CODE%} + + To provide a more flexible alternative, Bison 2.3b introduced the + %code directive with the following forms for C/C++: + + %code {CODE} + %code requires {CODE} + %code provides {CODE} + %code top {CODE} + + These forms are now considered permanent features of Bison. See the + %code entries in the section "Bison Declaration Summary" in the Bison + manual for a summary of their functionality. See the section + "Prologue Alternatives" for a detailed discussion including the + advantages of %code over the traditional Yacc prologue directive. + + Bison's Java feature as a whole including its current usage of %code + is still considered experimental. + * Changes in version 2.4.1 (2008-12-11): -* Java skeleton improvements: +** In the GLR defines file, unexpanded M4 macros in the yylval and yylloc + declarations have been fixed. - The constants for token names were moved to the Lexer interface. - Also, it is possible to add code to the parser's constructors using - "%code init" and "%define init_throws". +** Temporary hack for adding a semicolon to the user action. + + Bison used to prepend a trailing semicolon at the end of the user + action for reductions. This allowed actions such as + + exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3 }; + + instead of + + exp: exp "+" exp { $$ = $1 + $3; }; + + Some grammars still depend on this `feature'. Bison 2.4.1 restores + the previous behavior in the case of C output (specifically, when + neither %language or %skeleton or equivalent command-line options + are used) to leave more time for grammars depending on the old + behavior to be adjusted. Future releases of Bison will disable this + feature. + +** A few minor improvements to the Bison manual. * Changes in version 2.4 (2008-11-02):