[ changelog ] release texts for >= 2.8.2

source/releases.md

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+# 2.9.0
+
+## Major changes
+
+* New license: BSD 3-clause [#308]
+* LBNF: removed `delimiters` pragma [#308]
+* Haskell: removed options `--alex1`, `--alex2`, `--sharestrings`, `--profile`, and `--cnf` [#265]
+* C#: backend removed [#265]
+
+## Bug fixes
+
+* LBNF: allow list categories in `entrypoints` pragma [#306]
+* LBNF: report clashes between token and ordinary categories [#323]
+* C: `strdup` is not part of C89 standard, `_POSIX_C_SOURCE` required [#318]
+* C/C++: fixed buffer overrun in `String` literal lexer [#316]
+* C++: fixed regressions (one of them #310) introduced by #288
+* C/C++/OCaml: allow unicode characters in token definitions [#324]
+* C/OCaml: sanitize grammar file names [#325]
+* Java/ANTLR: removed superfluous quotation in lexer character sets [#319]
+
+
+# 2.8.4
+
+This release adds the __OCaml/Menhir__ backend, a variant of the OCaml backend that uses parser generator `menhir` instead of `ocamlyacc`.  Beyond that, the focus of this release has been increased __robustness and predictability__ of the BNFC tool:
+
+* New option `--check` that only performs sanity checks on the given LBNF grammar file, without calling any backend (#286).
+* New sanity checks (#186, #213, #214) and deprecation warnings.
+* Error messages of BNFC concerning rule or category names are now equipped with the error location.
+* Generated code systematically tries to avoid clashes with language keywords or standard library names (#278, #289).
+* Pragma `define` now supported by all maintained backends (Agda, Haskell, Haskell/GADT, C, C++, Java).
+* Pragma `position token` now supported by all maintained backends with the exception of C++/NoSTL.
+* List separators consisting just of whitespace are now accepted. They are used in the generated printers but treated like "" in the generated parsers (#70).
+
+The Haskell backend has seen the following improvements:
+
+* New option `--text-token` to use `Data.Text` instead of `String` in the generated lexer (#167).
+* Deriving `IsString` instances for `Ident`-like token types (#192).
+* The `Err` monad is now defined as `Either String`.  Module `ErrM` is only generated for backwards compatibility.  Imports of `ErrM` with an explicit import list may have to modified slightly, see a migration guide at the [Haskell backend documentation](https://bnfc.readthedocs.io/en/v2.8.4/user_guide.html#haskell-backend).
+* Block comments delimiters are no longer restricted to 2 characters.
+
+The C-family backends have been improved as follows:
+
+* C, C++, Java: Now multiple block comment forms per grammar are allowed (#202).
+* C++/STL: The parser now throws an exception when parsing fails (#288).
+* Java/JFlex: Special characters are properly escaped (#299).
+* Java/ANTLR: Start rules are generated to work around ANTLR issue #2689 (#272).
+
+Further bug fixes: #163, #169, #196, #212, #235, #256, #264, #269, #274, #276, #277, #279, #282, #283, #290.
+
+Building of BNFC 2.8.4 requires __GHC ≥ 7.10__ and has been tested up to GHC 8.10.2.
+BNFC can be build using `cabal` or `stack` (using one of the enclosed `stack-x.y.z.yaml` files).
+
+
+# 2.8.3
+
+Main new feature:
+
+* Agda backend: generates bindings to output of Haskell backend
+
+Backend-independent features:
+
+* GHC 8.8 compatibility
+* Stack installation supported by provided `.yaml` files [#198]
+* Unicode support in lexer, excl. C, C++ and Ocaml [#249]
+* LBNF: support `\r` (carriage return) and `\f` (form feed) in token declaration [#257]
+* LBNF: allow numbered categories (like `Foo2`) independent of coercions [#210]
+
+C backend:
+
+* supports now the `-l` option to give error locations [#238]
+* correct function names in generated skeletons [#239]
+* handle regular expression difference (subtraction) correctly [#237]
+
+Haskell backend:
+
+* generates now more fine-grained `Makefile` that invokes `bnfc` on changed `.cf` file
+* uses qualified import of AST in generated printer [fixes #128,#228]
+* printer code no longer produces deprecation warning concerning `OverlappingInstances` [#233]
+* `--cnf`: fixed problem with `Any` type in generated code [#216]
+* `--cnf`: generated test program now same name (`Test`) as without `--cnf`
+* `--glr`: correct module header in .y file [#252]
+
+# 2.8.2
+
+Main new feature:
+
+* Java: An experimental ANTLR4 backend [#155]
+
+Backend-independent features:
+
+* GHC 8.4 compatibility [#227,#236]
+* bnfc now puts current timestamp on all created files, even unchanged ones [#219]
+* bnfc is now more accepting about border-line terminals [#149]
+* Improved error messages [#144] in particular on undefined categories [#151]
+
+C and C++ backends:
+
+* C: Emit correct function prototypes [#185]
+* C++: Fix buffer overrun in pretty printer [#242]
+* C++: Fix regression introduced in 2.8 in Skeleton.H [#164]
+* C++: Replace `%name-prefix` with `%define api.prefix` in bison files [#181]
+* C++: Fix a bug that appeared if you had a category named "List"
+* C, C++: Add usage output to the test program [#141]
+* C, C++: Fix a bug in the parser file when using -p [#172]
+* C, C++, OCaml, Java: Accept ' or " as comment delimiters [#146]
+
+Haskell backend:
+
+* Generated code mostly hlint-warning free
+* Small fixes [#166,#170,#222]
+
+Other backends:
+
+* Java: Add support for passing line numbers to parser [#217,#224,#226]
+* OCaml: Reserved symbols now have a higher precedence than predefined tokens as in Haskell
+
+Further:
+
+* Some updates of the documentation [#211,#223]
+* And various small fixes [#139,#159,#195,#201,#215]