February 2004   

MKS Lex & Yacc provides valuable aid to those who write compilers, database query languages and text processing applications.



MKS Inc.

 12701 Fair Lakes Circle, Suite 350
Fairfax VA 22033-3831 USA

Main:
  +1-703-803-3343

Support:
  +1-703-803-7660
  tk_support@mkssoftware.com

www.mkssoftware.com





 


MKS Lex & Yacc® Release Notes

Version 3.4

MKS Lex & Yacc 3.4

MKS Lex & Yacc simplifies the development of interpretive and analytical software such as customized compilers and parsers. By automating complex processes like user input translation, MKS Lex & Yacc provides valuable aid to those who write compilers, database query languages and text processing applications.

The 3.4 release of MKS Lex & Yacc resolves several problems as discussed in the Fixed Problems section. In addition, the following sections discuss specific enhancements.

Increased Visual Studio Support.

The MKS Lex & Yacc Visual Studio add-in now supports Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2002 and Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003 in addition to Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0

Operating System Compatibility

MKS Lex & Yacc is now compatible with Windows XP and Windows Server 2003.

New Features in Previous Releases

MKS Lex & Yacc Documentation

Documentation for MKS Lex & Yacc is divided into two parts:

  • HTML Help files
  • Plain text reference pages

To properly read the online HTML Help files, you must have Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0 or later installed on your system. It does not need to be your default browser.

The HTML Help files provide the following documentation:

  • Lex & Yacc Tutorial
  • Lex Programming Guide
  • Yacc Programming Guide
  • Lex & Yacc Reference Pages
  • MKS Lex & Yacc Visual Studio Add-In

You can access the online reference pages for the command line utilities provided with MKS Lex & Yacc either through the Help button of the Visual Studio add-in or by using the command line man utility to view the plain text reference pages. To access a command's reference page, type: 

     	man cmd_name

For example, to get the reference page for the yacc command, you would type: 

	man yacc

To access a miscellaneous information page, type 

     	man 5 page_name

For example, to see the miscellaneous information page for yacc, you would type: 

	man 5 yacc

Using MKS Lex & Yacc with MKS Toolkit

In general, MKS Lex & Yacc is fully compatible with MKS Toolkit for System Administrators, MKS Toolkit for Developers, and MKS Toolkit for Interoperability. It is not recommended for use with MKS Toolkit for Professional Developers and MKS Toolkit for Enterprise Developers due to conflicts with the versions of lex and yacc provided with those products.

Getting the Correct Reference Page

Because all versions of the MKS Toolkit product install the plain text reference pages for the SCO lex and yacc utilities provided in MKS Toolkit for Professional Developers and MKS Toolkit for Enterprise Developers, there are some issues with viewing the correct reference pages.

On a system with both MKS Lex & Yacc and MKS Toolkit, typing one of the following: 

	man lex
	man yacc

displays either the plain text reference page for the SCO utility (if MKS Lex & Yacc was installed first) or the MKS Lex & Yacc utility (if MKS Toolkit was installed first).

To avoid any confusion, you should use the HTML Help version of the reference pages provided in the MKS Lex & Yacc online documentation or for the SCO versions, the reference pages in the MKS Toolkit Utilities Reference.

Also, the HTML Help versions of the MKS Lex & Yacc reference pages are not viewable with the MKS Toolkit man -h command. You can view them as described earlier or by typing: 

	%ROOTDIR%\etc\help\lyref.chm

at the Windows command prompt or: 

	$ROOTDIR/etc/help/lyref.chm

at an MKS KornShell, MKS Bash, or MKS C Shell command prompt.

Getting the Correct Executable

Should you choose to install MKS Lex & Yacc and either MKS Toolkit for Professional Developers or MKS Toolkit for Enterprise Developers, you can avoid some of the conflicts created by specifying a full path name when you run lex or yacc.

To run the MKS Lex & Yacc versions of the utilities, type one of the following at a Windows command prompt: 

	%ROOTDIR%\mksnt\lex
	%ROOTDIR%\mksnt\yacc

or one of the following at an MKS KornShell, MKS Bash, or MKS C Shell commmand prompt: 

	$ROOTDIR/mksnt/lex
	$ROOTDIR/mksnt/yacc

To run the SCO versions of the utilities provided with MKS Toolkit for Professional Developers or MKS Toolkit for Enterprise Developers, type one of the following at a Windows command prompt: 

	%ROOTDIR%\bin\lex
	%ROOTDIR%\bin\yacc

or one of the following at an MKS KornShell, MKS Bash, or MKS C Shell commmand prompt: 

	$ROOTDIR/bin/lex
	$ROOTDIR/bin/yacc

Hardware and Software Requirements

MKS Lex & Yacc does not have any particular hardware requirements. Any machine that is sufficient to run the underlying operating system is sufficient. MKS Lex & Yacc runs on Windows systems with Intel 32-bit or IA64 processors.

MKS Lex & Yacc has the following software requirements:

  • Platforms. You can install MKS Lex & Yacc on:
    • Windows Me
    • Windows NT (Workstation, Server, or Terminal Server) with Service Pack 6+ (Service Pack 6a is recommended)
    • Windows 2000 (Professional, Server, or Advanced Server)
    • Windows XP (Home or Professional)
    • Windows Server 2003

Installing MKS Lex & Yacc

Normally, the MKS Lex & Yacc CD should autostart when you insert it in your CD-ROM drive, prompting you for your installation choices. If your CD does not autostart, select Start > Run and enter: 

        x:/setup

where x is your CD-ROM drive.

The installation screens guide you through the process of installing Lex & Yacc.

For more information about installing MKS Lex & Yacc iuncluding performing administrative and silent installations, see http://www.mkssoftware.com/support/install8.asp.

Uninstalling MKS Lex & Yacc

To uninstall MKS Lex & Yacc, select Control Panel from the the Start menu and run Add/Remove Programs. Remove MKS Lex & Yacc.

Customer Support

When reporting a problem, you will need certain information about your product, which you can find by running the mksinfo utility.

Contact MKS customer support at:

Web Site: http://www.mkssoftware.com/support
Online Request Form: http://www.mkssoftware.com/support/support.asp
E-mail: tk_support@mkssoftware.com
Telephone: +1-703-803-7660
(9:00am to 7:00pm ET, Mon-Fri, except holidays)
Fax: +1-703-803-3344

Operating System Support

Microsoft dropped support for Windows 95 as of November 2001 and for Windows 98 at the end of June 2003. For this reason, MKS Lex & Yacc will not be officially supported on these operating systems. MKS will continue to support Windows Me, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003. Note, however, that references to unsupported operating systems may still remain in some documentation. We will endeavor to remove such references in time.

Additional Resources

There are several other sources for additional information about MKS products.

We have general product information, including technical specifications, detailed utility listings, and datasheets at:

We have several additional articles, tutorials, and white papers about using features of MKS products at:

Through the years, we have accumulated a lot of technical details about MKS products and have put this information in a searchable database at:

Our customers commonly ask certain questions. These questions and their answers are in our Frequently Asked Questions pages at:

Known installation issues are listed at:

Fixed Problems

Several problems were fixed in MKS Lex & Yacc 3.4. These are listed at:

Fixed Problems in Previous Releases


©2004 MKS Software Inc.; in Canada Copyright owned by MKS Inc. All rights reserved.