Re: yytname woes

[James K. Lowden]

On Wed, 15 Nov 2023 12:35:31 +0100
Christian Schoenebeck <schoenebeck@crudebyte.com> wrote:

> > Not everyone needs to have an opinon!)
> 
> That's not what I said, but as you are already asking for my opinion:
> overall I actually find the Bison user manual very well (not saying
> perfect), 

Bison has seen a lot of technical improvement over the years.  There is
a C++ interface, a push interface, and a choice of generated parsers
in a a variety of target languages. And there is a rich array of
debugging/programming features. For me, and I think for many others,
there is no better yacc.  

Documenting all that is a challenge. I think the manual is useful but
needs rewriting. It oscillates between tutorial and reference, and
tucks in tangental advice.  And it leaves crucial terms undefined, such
as "internal Bison token code".  I've been using Bison daily for the
last two years, and still have no idea what a "skeleton" is, or when
exactly I can depend on $$ = $1 having been executed.  

Any failings are not for lack of effort.  I asked a question about
start conditions here some years ago, and today there's a notation in
the manual that addresses my question.  But a rewrite will take more
time and skill than occasional edits do.  

> I don't get where that high expectation comes from,
> that you simply drop a message on a user list and naturally expect
> people ...

I asked my question because it wasn't clear to me that yytname was, in
my case, working as intended.  In fact, that was my exact question: 

> > I can't seem to look up token names in yytname correctly using enum
> > yytokentype. [...evidence...]
> > It looks like an error to me.  Is there something I should (or
> > conventionally would) do differently?

My "high expectation", if that's what it is, is to ask a question from
my peers who might know the answer, and for them to answer.  That is
what I would do if I could and do do, in other forurms where I'm the
expert.  Isn't that what mailing lists are for?  

I don't think you're objecting to my expectation per se, though.  I
think you take exception to what you see as a lack of deference and
respect.  To that I plead half-guilty: I bring respect, then and now,
but no deference.  

Ulitmately, I got my answer, thanks to you.  (Did I say thanks? I did,
but: Thanks!)  Now it's in the archives for others to discover.  It
was harder (on both of us, probably) than it should have been.  I don't
know if my #tone prompted you to answer or, frankly, what else I might
have done to elicit it, other than what I did to start with: ask.  

--jkl