Re: [PATCH] Fix variadic declaration of yyerror() and yylex() function prototypes

[Jeannot Langlois]

Paul Eggert wrote:

> Jeannot Langlois <address@hidden> writes:
>
>  
>
> > 1- Can you have a look at my attached patch and tell me what you think
> > of it?
> >    
>
> It looks pretty good (comments below).  Thanks for taking
> the time to attack this annoyance.
>
>  
Thanks for looking at the patch, that was really fast ;-).

> > It has been generated from released Bison-2.0 tree
> > though... is that okay?
> >    
>
> It'd be a bit easier for me if you did it against CVS Bison
> <https://savannah.gnu.org/projects/bison>.  CVS is a bit of a hassle
> since it requires bleeding-edge development tools, but Bison 2.0a
> <ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/bison/bison-2.0a.tar.gz> should be easy.
>  

Ok -- I'll get bison-2.0a and will generate a new patch using that 
version (as I am not a regular Bison developer, this should be the 
easiest way...).

>  
>
> > 2- Would there be a better way to check for the return type of a
> > user-declared yyerror() prototype that could exist, before my M4
> > macros generate a potentially-conflicting yyerror() declaration?
> >    
>
> How about if we have Bison use "int" when it is running in Yacc mode
> (as POSIX requires), but "void" otherwise?  You can communicate this
> information to the template, and let the template do its thing.
I guess that would be the best way to solve this issue without modifying 
the testsuite.  However I don't know much about Bison except for the two 
skeleton files I've been playing with in the last days -- Are there any 
mechanisms already in place to communicate the presence of this "-ly" 
option to the skeleton files?  (Like any M4 macros already defined, or 
any symbol?).

> > 3- Why would "int" be used as the return type of user-declared
> > yyerror() in testcases #117 to #126?  Doesn't Bison recommend to use
> > "void" as the return type?
> >    
>
> It's probably historical accident.  Do any of the examples link with
> -ly?  If not, you can change them to "void".
>  

Ok.  I'll have to recheck the testsuite to check if any of the testcases 
use "-ly", and I'll get back to you afterwards.

>  
>
> > 4- I would appreciate any other comments regarding my current
> > "tentative" patch, and will hope it might interest you enough to be
> > considered for inclusion in the next release.... :-)
> >    
>
> My main comment is a question: would you be willing to assign the
> copyright to the Free Software Foundation, so that we could install it
> in Bison?
>
> Thanks again.
>  

Of course I will handover my copyrights for this patch to the FSF -- it 
was my intention to contribute to the Bison development effort after all 
;-).
I will be looking at Bison 2.0a and will get back to you on this in a 
few days.  The only problem I have is to find enough free time to work 
on this eheh :).


Regards,



--
*Jeannot Langlois*
B. Sc.  Computer Science / B. Sc.  Informatique
Software Developer / Programmeur-Analyste
System/Network Administrator / Administrateur Système/Réseau
**
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