* Noteworthy changes in release 3.2.4 (2018-12-24) [stable]
** Bug fixes
Fix the move constructor of symbol_type.
Always provide a copy constructor for symbol_type, even in modern C++.
* Noteworthy changes in release 3.2.3 (2018-12-18) [stable]
** Bug fixes
Properly support token constructors in C++ with types that include commas
(e.g., std::pair<int, int>). A regression introduced in Bison 3.2.
* Noteworthy changes in release 3.2.2 (2018-11-21) [stable]
** Bug fixes
C++ portability issues.
* Noteworthy changes in release 3.2.1 (2018-11-09) [stable]
** Bug fixes
Several portability issues have been fixed in the build system, in the
test suite, and in the generated parsers in C++.
* Noteworthy changes in release 3.2 (2018-10-29) [stable]
** Backward incompatible changes
Support for DJGPP, which have been unmaintained and untested for years, is
obsolete. Unless there is activity to revive it, it will be removed.
** Changes
%printers should use yyo rather than yyoutput to denote the output stream.
Variant-based symbols in C++ should use emplace() rather than build().
In C++ parsers, parser::operator() is now a synonym for the parser::parse.
** Documentation
A new section, "A Simple C++ Example", is a tutorial for parsers in C++.
A comment in the generated code now emphasizes that users should not
depend upon non-documented implementation details, such as macros starting
with YY_.
** New features
*** C++: Support for move semantics (lalr1.cc)
The lalr1.cc skeleton now fully supports C++ move semantics, while
maintaining compatibility with C++98. You may now store move-only types
when using Bison's variants. For instance:
%code {
#include <memory>
#include <vector>
}
%skeleton "lalr1.cc"
%define api.value.type variant
%%
%token <int> INT "int";
%type <std::unique_ptr<int>> int;
%type <std::vector<std::unique_ptr<int>>> list;
list:
%empty {}
| list int { $$ = std::move($1); $$.emplace_back(std::move($2)); }
int: "int" { $$ = std::make_unique<int>($1); }
*** C++: Implicit move of right-hand side values (lalr1.cc)
In modern C++ (C++11 and later), you should always use 'std::move' with
the values of the right-hand side symbols ($1, $2, etc.), as they will be
popped from the stack anyway. Using 'std::move' is mandatory for
move-only types such as unique_ptr, and it provides a significant speedup
for large types such as std::string, or std::vector, etc.
If '%define api.value.automove' is set, every occurrence '$n' is replaced
by 'std::move ($n)'. The second rule in the previous grammar can be
simplified to:
list: list int { $$ = $1; $$.emplace_back($2); }
With automove enabled, the semantic values are no longer lvalues, so do
not use the swap idiom:
list: list int { std::swap($$, $1); $$.emplace_back($2); }
This idiom is anyway obsolete: it is preferable to move than to swap.
A warning is issued when automove is enabled, and a value is used several
times.
input.yy:16.31-32: warning: multiple occurrences of $2 with api.value.automove enabled [-Wother]
exp: "twice" exp { $$ = $2 + $2; }
^^
Enabling api.value.automove does not require support for modern C++. The
generated code is valid C++98/03, but will use copies instead of moves.
The new examples/c++/variant-11.yy shows these features in action.
*** C++: The implicit default semantic action is always run
When variants are enabled, the default action was not run, so
exp: "number"
was equivalent to
exp: "number" {}
It now behaves like in all the other cases, as
exp: "number" { $$ = $1; }
possibly using std::move if automove is enabled.
We do not expect backward compatibility issues. However, beware of
forward compatibility issues: if you rely on default actions with
variants, be sure to '%require "3.2"' to avoid older versions of Bison to
generate incorrect parsers.
*** C++: Renaming location.hh
When both %defines and %locations are enabled, Bison generates a
location.hh file. If you don't use locations outside of the parser, you
may avoid its creation with:
%define api.location.file none
However this file is useful if, for instance, your parser builds an AST
decorated with locations: you may use Bison's location independently of
Bison's parser. You can now give it another name, for instance:
%define api.location.file "my-location.hh"
This name can have directory components, and even be absolute. The name
under which the location file is included is controlled by
api.location.include.
This way it is possible to have several parsers share the same location
file.
For instance, in src/foo/parser.hh, generate the include/ast/loc.hh file:
%locations
%define api.namespace {foo}
%define api.location.file "include/ast/loc.hh"
%define api.location.include {<ast/loc.hh>}
and use it in src/bar/parser.hh:
%locations
%define api.namespace {bar}
%code requires {#include <ast/loc.hh>}
%define api.location.type {bar::location}
Absolute file names are supported, so in your Makefile, passing the flag
-Dapi.location.file='"$(top_srcdir)/include/ast/location.hh"' to bison is
safe.
*** C++: stack.hh and position.hh are deprecated
When asked to generate a header file (%defines), the lalr1.cc skeleton
generates a stack.hh file. This file had no interest for users; it is now
made useless: its content is included in the parser definition. It is
still generated for backward compatibility.
When in addition to %defines, location support is requested (%locations),
the file position.hh is also generated. It is now also useless: its
content is now included in location.hh.
These files are no longer generated when your grammar file requires at
least Bison 3.2 (%require "3.2").
** Bug fixes
Portability issues on MinGW and VS2015.
Portability issues in the test suite.
Portability/warning issues with Flex.
* Noteworthy changes in release 3.1 (2018-08-27) [stable]
** Backward incompatible changes
Compiling Bison now requires a C99 compiler---as announced during the
release of Bison 3.0, five years ago. Generated parsers do not require a
C99 compiler.
Support for DJGPP, which have been unmaintained and untested for years, is
obsolete. Unless there is activity to revive it, the next release of Bison
will have it removed.
** New features
*** Typed midrule actions
Because their type is unknown to Bison, the values of midrule actions are
not treated like the others: they don't have %printer and %destructor
support. It also prevents C++ (Bison) variants to handle them properly.
Typed midrule actions address these issues. Instead of:
exp: { $<ival>$ = 1; } { $<ival>$ = 2; } { $$ = $<ival>1 + $<ival>2; }
write:
exp: <ival>{ $$ = 1; } <ival>{ $$ = 2; } { $$ = $1 + $2; }
*** Reports include the type of the symbols
The sections about terminal and nonterminal symbols of the '*.output' file
now specify their declared type. For instance, for:
%token <ival> NUM
the report now shows '<ival>':
Terminals, with rules where they appear
NUM <ival> (258) 5
*** Diagnostics about useless rules
In the following grammar, the 'exp' nonterminal is trivially useless. So,
of course, its rules are useless too.
%%
input: '0' | exp
exp: exp '+' exp | exp '-' exp | '(' exp ')'
Previously all the useless rules were reported, including those whose
left-hand side is the 'exp' nonterminal:
warning: 1 nonterminal useless in grammar [-Wother]
warning: 4 rules useless in grammar [-Wother]
2.14-16: warning: nonterminal useless in grammar: exp [-Wother]
input: '0' | exp
^^^
2.14-16: warning: rule useless in grammar [-Wother]
input: '0' | exp
^^^
3.6-16: warning: rule useless in grammar [-Wother]
exp: exp '+' exp | exp '-' exp | '(' exp ')'
^^^^^^^^^^^
3.20-30: warning: rule useless in grammar [-Wother]
exp: exp '+' exp | exp '-' exp | '(' exp ')'
^^^^^^^^^^^
3.34-44: warning: rule useless in grammar [-Wother]
exp: exp '+' exp | exp '-' exp | '(' exp ')'
^^^^^^^^^^^
Now, rules whose left-hand side symbol is useless are no longer reported
as useless. The locations of the errors have also been adjusted to point
to the first use of the nonterminal as a left-hand side of a rule:
warning: 1 nonterminal useless in grammar [-Wother]
warning: 4 rules useless in grammar [-Wother]
3.1-3: warning: nonterminal useless in grammar: exp [-Wother]
exp: exp '+' exp | exp '-' exp | '(' exp ')'
^^^
2.14-16: warning: rule useless in grammar [-Wother]
input: '0' | exp
^^^
*** C++: Generated parsers can be compiled with -fno-exceptions (lalr1.cc)
When compiled with exceptions disabled, the generated parsers no longer
uses try/catch clauses.
Currently only GCC and Clang are supported.
** Documentation
*** A demonstration of variants
A new example was added (installed in .../share/doc/bison/examples),
'variant.yy', which shows how to use (Bison) variants in C++.
The other examples were made nicer to read.
*** Some features are no longer 'experimental'
The following features, mature enough, are no longer flagged as
experimental in the documentation: push parsers, default %printer and
%destructor (typed: <*> and untyped: <>), %define api.value.type union and
variant, Java parsers, XML output, LR family (lr, ielr, lalr), and
semantic predicates (%?).
** Bug fixes
*** GLR: Predicates support broken by #line directives
Predicates (%?) in GLR such as
widget:
%? {new_syntax} 'w' id new_args
| %?{!new_syntax} 'w' id old_args
were issued with #lines in the middle of C code.
*** Printer and destructor with broken #line directives
The #line directives were not properly escaped when emitting the code for
%printer/%destructor, which resulted in compiler errors if there are
backslashes or double-quotes in the grammar file name.
*** Portability on ICC
The Intel compiler claims compatibility with GCC, yet rejects its _Pragma.
Generated parsers now work around this.
*** Various
There were several small fixes in the test suite and in the build system,
many warnings in bison and in the generated parsers were eliminated. The
documentation also received its share of minor improvements.
Useless code was removed from C++ parsers, and some of the generated
constructors are more 'natural'.
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