[DERBY-6989] Upgrade javacc version

• Type: Improvement
• Status: Open
• Priority: Minor
• Resolution: Unresolved
• Affects Version/s: 10.14.1.0, 10.15.1.3
• Component/s: Build tools
• Urgency: Normal
• Assignee: Unassigned
• Reporter: Richard N. Hillegas
• Created: 24/Mar/18 14:37
• Updated: 24/Mar/18 14:37

Description

Our javacc version is still 4.0 on the 10.15 trunk as well as on the 10.14 and older branches. The following command demonstrates this:

> java -cp trunk/tools/java/javacc.jar javacc
Java Compiler Compiler Version 4.0 (Parser Generator)

Usage:
    javacc option-settings inputfile

"option-settings" is a sequence of settings separated by spaces.
Each option setting must be of one of the following forms:

    -optionname=value (e.g., -STATIC=false)
    -optionname:value (e.g., -STATIC:false)
    -optionname       (equivalent to -optionname=true.  e.g., -STATIC)
    -NOoptionname     (equivalent to -optionname=false. e.g., -NOSTATIC)

Option settings are not case-sensitive, so one can say "-nOsTaTiC" instead
of "-NOSTATIC".  Option values must be appropriate for the corresponding
option, and must be either an integer, a boolean, or a string value.

The integer valued options are:

    LOOKAHEAD              (default 1)
    CHOICE_AMBIGUITY_CHECK (default 2)
    OTHER_AMBIGUITY_CHECK  (default 1)

The boolean valued options are:

    STATIC                 (default true)
    DEBUG_PARSER           (default false)
    DEBUG_LOOKAHEAD        (default false)
    DEBUG_TOKEN_MANAGER    (default false)
    OPTIMIZE_TOKEN_MANAGER (default true)
    ERROR_REPORTING        (default true)
    JAVA_UNICODE_ESCAPE    (default false)
    UNICODE_INPUT          (default false)
    IGNORE_CASE            (default false)
    COMMON_TOKEN_ACTION    (default false)
    USER_TOKEN_MANAGER     (default false)
    USER_CHAR_STREAM       (default false)
    BUILD_PARSER           (default true)
    BUILD_TOKEN_MANAGER    (default true)
    TOKEN_MANAGER_USES_PARSER (default false)
    SANITY_CHECK           (default true)
    FORCE_LA_CHECK         (default false)
    CACHE_TOKENS           (default false)
    KEEP_LINE_COLUMN       (default true)

The string valued options are:

    OUTPUT_DIRECTORY       (default Current Directory)
    JDK_VERSION       (default 1.4)

EXAMPLE:
    javacc -STATIC=false -LOOKAHEAD:2 -debug_parser mygrammar.jj

This version of javacc is so old that its default JDK version is 1.4.

DERBY-5215 describes some of the issues involved in upgrading javacc. I seem to recall that later versions of javacc produced worse error messages when users tried to compile illegal SQL statements. That might still be a showstopper.

However, relying on a stale, unsupported tool seems like a bad long-term strategy.

Issue Links

• relates to: DERBY-5125 Derby 10.7.1.1 : Build fails with javacc 5 (for Debian packaging)