[jflex-announce] JFlex 1.4_pre4 released

[Gerwin K. <ger...@ni...>]

Hi,

I've just released JFlex version 1.4_pre4. It contains mainly bugfixes (all 
bugs that have been reported except the lookahead algorithm) and some new 
features. It is also the first release candidate for JFlex 1.4.

I encourage everyone to try out this new version and give feedback in case you 
find anything. If nothing comes up in the next 2 months, this release will 
become the stable version JFlex 1.4.

JFlex 1.4_pre4 is available from the sourceforge.net download system:

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=14929&release_id=195601


The complete list of changes from 1.3.5 to 1.4_pre4 follows (changes from 
1.4_pre3 to 1.4_pre4 at the top):

- new --jlex option for strict compatibility to JLex. Currently it 
  changes %ignorecase to JLex semantics, that is, character classes 
  are interpreted in a caseless way, too.  
  (fixes bus #751757, %ignorecase ignored by char classes).
  Thanks to Edward D. Willink for spotting the incompatibility.
- support for even larger scanners (up to 64K DFA states).
  Thanks to Karin Vespoor.
- removed eclipse compiler warnings for generated classes
  (feature request #778747)
- implemented faster character classes (feature request #604589).
  Expressions like [a-z] | [A-Z] are interpreted as one atomic class
  [a-zA-Z], reducing NFA states and generation time significantly
  for some specifications. This affects the generation process only,
  generated scanners remain the same.
- new %apiprivate switch (feature request #513500/1) that causes all 
  generated and skeleton methods to be made private. Exceptions to this
  are user defined functions and the constructor. Thanks to Stephen 
  Ostermiller for the suggestion.
- allow user defined javadoc class comments (feature request #513500/2)
  If the user code section ends with a javadoc comment, JFlex takes this
  instead of the generated comment. Thanks to Stephen Ostermiller for 
  the suggestion.  
- fixed bug #491095 (undefined macros in complement expressions do 
  not throw exception in generator). Thanks to Stephen Ostermiller
  for the bug report.
- fixed bug #495422 (yypushStream/yypopStream in skeleton.nested 
  work as advertised)
- fixed bug #611118 (no wrong macro warnings on regexp negation)
- fixed bug #655528 (%cupsym now also affects %cupdebug)
  Thanks to Eric Schweitz for the fix.
- fixed bug #510010 (single-line %initthrow works now 
  in case of extra whitespace before newline)
- yyreset() does no longer close the associated reader (use yyclose() 
  explicitly for that). Makes some reader objects reusable (feature
  request #513492). Thanks to Stephen Ostermiller for the suggestion.  
- new, very fast minimization algorithm (also fixes memory issues)
- fixed modifier order in generated code, removes jikes compiler warnings
  Thanks to Michael Wildpaner for the fix.
- ant task now also works with ant >= 1.4 (fixes bug #526905)
- jflex build script switched to ant
- internal changes: central Options class for better integration with 
  build tools and IDEs

Cheers,
Gerwin