Re: a probablem with Bison

[Paul Eggert]

josephus <address@hidden> writes:

> Because my grammar gets NO ERRORS, the failure is in bison's
> algorithm.

Possibly, but not necessarily.  It could be a lot of things.  For
example, it could be the use of an uninitialized variable that just
happens to work with other parser generators, but not with Bison.

> I have a debug version of 20a and I can look at the problem if you
> could send me a general descriptions or a pointer to a descriptions of
> the general method of processing.

I installed this patch to the documentation to put in a pointer to the
general method used.  For the exact details, I'm afraid that the Bison
source code is the only reference.

If you follow the URL below you will get a copy of the paper, if you
have access to the ACM digital library.  If not, please let me know,
and I will email you a PDF privately; the paper's copyright notice
grants me permission to do that.

2005-07-11  Paul Eggert  <address@hidden>

        * doc/bison.texinfo (Mystery Conflicts): Add reference to DeRemer
        and Pennello's paper.

--- bison.texinfo.~1.148.~      2005-07-08 23:24:55.000000000 -0700
+++ bison.texinfo       2005-07-11 15:27:28.000000000 -0700
@@ -5496,6 +5496,13 @@ return_spec:
         ;
 @end example
 
+For a more detailed exposition of @acronym{LALR}(1) parsers and parser
+generators, please see:
+Frank DeRemer and Thomas Pennello, Efficient Computation of
address@hidden(1) Look-Ahead Sets, @address@hidden Transactions on
+Programming Languages and Systems}, Vol.@: 4, No.@: 4 (October 1982),
+pp.@: 615--649 @uref{http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/69622.357187}.
+
 @node Generalized LR Parsing
 @section Generalized @acronym{LR} (@acronym{GLR}) Parsing
 @cindex @acronym{GLR} parsing
@@ -6785,7 +6792,7 @@ int yyparse (void);
 @c - Always pure
 @c - initial action
 
-The C++ parser LALR(1) skeleton is named @file{lalr1.cc}.  To select
+The C++ parser @acronym{LALR}(1) skeleton is named @file{lalr1.cc}.  To select
 it, you may either pass the option @option{--skeleton=lalr1.cc} to
 Bison, or include the directive @samp{%skeleton "lalr1.cc"} in the
 grammar preamble.  When run, @command{bison} will create several