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110 lines
4.9 KiB
Plaintext
110 lines
4.9 KiB
Plaintext
Frequently Asked Questions about Bison:
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Q1. Is Bison Y2K compliant?
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A1. If you're looking for a guarantee or certification, I can't
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provide it. With a little thought you can answer this one for
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yourself, though. (Hint: does a parser generator rely on the
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date or time for anything?) If you're still confused, see
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http://www.gnu.org/software/year2000.html for more information.
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Q2. I can't build Bison because "make" complains that "msgfmt" is not
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found. What should I do?
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A2. Like most GNU packages with internationalization support, that
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feature is turned on by default. If you have problems building
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in the "po" subdirectory, it indicates that your system's
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internationalization support is lacking. You can re-configure
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Bison with "--disable-nls" to turn off this support, or you can
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install GNU gettext from ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gettext/ and
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re-configure Bison. See the file "ABOUT-NLS" for more
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information.
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Q3. I'm having trouble using Bison. Where can I find help?
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A3. First, read the fine manual which comes with bison. Beyond that,
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you can send mail to <help-bison@gnu.org>. This mailing list is
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intended to be populated with people who are willing to answer
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questions about using and installing Bison. Please keep in mind
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that (most of) the people on the list have aspects of their lives
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which are not related to Bison (!), so you may not receive an
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answer to your question right away. This can be frustrating, but
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please try not to honk them off; remember that any help they
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provide is purely voluntary and out of the kindness of their
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hearts.
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Q4. I found a bug. What should I include in the bug report?
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A4. Before you send a bug report, make sure you are using the latest
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version. Check ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/bison/ or one of its
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mirrors. Be sure to include the version number in your bug
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report. If the bug is present in the latest version but not in a
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previous version, try to determine the most recent version which
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did not contain the bug.
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If the bug is parser-related, you should include the smallest
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grammar you can which demonstrates the bug. The grammar file
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should also be complete (i.e., I should be able to run it through
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Bison without having to edit or add anything). The smaller and
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simpler the grammar, the easier it will be to fix the bug.
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Include information about your compilation environment, including
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your operating system's name and version and your compiler's name
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and version. If you have trouble compiling, you should also
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include a transcript of the build session, starting with the
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invocation of `configure'. Depending on the nature of the bug,
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you may be asked to send additional files as well (such as
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`config.h' or `config.cache').
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Patches are most welcome, but not required. That is, do not
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hesitate to send a bug report just because you can not provide a
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fix.
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Send bug reports to <bug-bison@gnu.org>.
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Q5. Will Bison ever have C++ support?
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A5. Yes, it's in the works. Things are very chaotic right now, but
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what little information floats around is posted to the bug-bison
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mailing list. If you're interested in testing C++ support when
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it becomes available, please consider subscribing to the list,
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especially if you are willing to beta test other releases as
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well.
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Q6. What is involved in being a beta tester?
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A6. It's not terribly involved. Basically, you would download a test
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release, compile it, and use it to build and run a parser or two.
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After that, you would submit either a bug report or a message
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saying that everything is okay. It is important to report
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successes as well as failures because test releases eventually
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become mainstream releases, but only if they are adequately
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tested. If no one tests, development is essentially halted.
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Beta testers are particularly needed for operating systems to
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which I do not have access. I currently have easy access to
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Linux (x86 glibc 2.1), Solaris (SPARC) 2.6 and 2.7, and HP-UX
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10.20. Reports about other operating systems are especially
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welcome.
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Q7. How do I join the help-bison and bug-bison mailing lists?
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A7. See http://www.gnu.org/ (the section about "GNU mailing lists")
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for more information.
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