May 26, 2016 - Thomas Kim

Bison & Flex on Windows
	using Visual Studio 2015, 

System Requirements

	- Windows Vista, 7, 8, 8.1, 10
	- Visual Studio 2008, 2010, 2013, 2015
	- 5 GB free disk space
Tools:
	- Notepad++
	https://notepad-plus-plus.org/
	- 7zip
	http://www.7-zip.org/

IMPORTANT: Do not include blank space in the folder name or path string.

1. There are THREE (3) choices for Bison & Flex on Windows.

	Google search for "bison for windows" gives

	(a) Bison for Windows - GnuWin32
		Version 2.4.1, year 2009
		http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/bison.htm

	(b) Win flex-bison download | SourceForge.net
		Version 2.7, year 2012
		https://sourceforge.net/projects/winflexbison/
	
--------> (c) Our Choice for Bison & Flex  	
	
	- Bison - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation
		Version 3.0.4 - Jan 23, 2015
	- Home - https://www.gnu.org/software/bison/
	- Download - http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/bison/
	           - ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/bison/
	
	- Flex - The Fast Lexical Analyzer
		Version 2.6.0, Nov. 10, 2015
	- Home - http://flex.sourceforge.net/
	- Download - https://sourceforge.net/projects/flex/

2. We have to INSTALL Cygwin to use Bison & Flex on Windows
	
	- Cygwin Home
		http://www.cygwin.com/

	- On 32-bit Windows, then install
		https://cygwin.com/setup-x86.exe

------>	- On 64-bit Windows, then install
		https://cygwin.com/setup-x86_64.exe

	STEP 1. Create a folder DevSoft,
		
		either 
			C:\DevSoft
		or
---------------->		D:\DevSoft

	STEP2. Create TWO subfolders in DevSoft

		either
			C:\DevSoft\Cygwin
			C:\DevSoft\CygwinSetup
		or 
-------------------------->	D:\DevSoft\Cygwin
-------------------------->	D:\DevSoft\CygwinSetup

	STEP 3. Download Cygwin
	
		either
			on 32-bit Windows, 
			https://cygwin.com/setup-x86.exe
		or 
-------------------------->	on 64-bit Windows,
-------------------------->	https://cygwin.com/setup-x86_64.exe

		in the folder
			either
			C:\DevSoft\CygwinSetup
			or
-------------------------->	D:\DevSoft\CygwinSetup		

	STEP 4. Download Bison and Flex
	
		Bison - http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/bison/bison-3.0.4.tar.gz
			bison-3.0.4.tar.gz
		Flex - https://sourceforge.net/projects/flex/files/latest/download?source=files
			flex-2.6.0.tar.bz2

	STEP 5. Unzip 
		
		bison-3.0.4.tar.gz
		and 
		flex-2.6.0.tar.bz2
			
		Copy to 
			either
			C:\DevSoft\CygwinSetup
			or
-------------------------->	D:\DevSoft\CygwinSetup

	STEP 6. Double-click either

			setup-x86.exe
			or 
			setup-x86_64.exe

			in the CygwinSetup folder

	STEP 7. Watch the video. Packages we need to install:

		gcc
		g++
		bison
		flex
		make
		makepasswd
		help2man
		diffutils

3. Setup User's Home folder and Setup Environment Variables

	IMPORTANT: Do not include blank space in the folder name or path string.

	STEP 1. Setup User's Home folder
	
	mkpasswd -u "Thomas Kim" -l
	mkpasswd -u "Thomas Kim" -l > /etc/passwd

/etc/passwd

	STEP 2. Open Cygwin/etc/passwd using notepad or vi
		and remove blank space in "Thomas Kim" as "ThomasKim"
		watch the video
		
	STEP3. Setup Environment Variable - path for 
		D:\DevSoft\Cygwin\bin

4. Building Bison & Flex

	./configure	- make configuration for build 
	make		- build
	make clean	- remove object files (.obj, .a or .o)
	make install	- installs
	make uninstall	- uninstalls either bison or flex

	- You can excute ./configure only once for each Bison and Flex
	- Before you run 
		make
	you'd better run

		make clean
	
	 to clean up .obj files

	- To build, you have to run

		make clean
	then
		make

	- To remove, build, and install again

		make uninstall

		make clean

		make 

		make install


	STEP 1. Build Flex and Install

	In the \flex-2.6.0 folder

		./configure

		make

	- make clean
		make changes to 

		\flex-2.6.0\src\flex.skl

		#if defined(_MSC_BUILD) && (defined(_WIN32)||defined(_WIN64))
		
			#include <io.h>
			#include <process.h>
		#else
			#include <unistd.h>
		#endif

		in the same file
		
		#if defined(_MSC_BUILD) && (defined(_WIN32)||defined(_WIN64))
			b->yy_is_interactive = file ? (_isatty( _fileno(file) ) > 0) : 0;
		#else
			b->yy_is_interactive = file ? (isatty( fileno(file) ) > 0) : 0;
		#endif

		\flex-2.6.0\src\main.c
	
		case OPT_VERSION:
			printf (_("%s %s - Minor fix by Thomas Kim\n"), program_name, flex_version);
			FLEX_EXIT (0);

	- make
	- make install

	STEP 2. Build Bison and Install

	- In the \bison-3.0.4 folder

		./configure

		make

	- In the \bison-3.0.4 folder

		make clean

	- In the \bison-3.0.4\src\getargs.c file,
		
		make changes as 
			
		printf (_("bison (GNU Bison) %s - Minor Fix by Thomas Kim"), VERSION);
		
	- In the \bison-3.0.4 folder

		make

		make install
			
5. Setup Environment Variables - path

		D:\DevSoft\Cygwin\usr\local\bin;D:\DevSoft\Cygwin\bin;

	Double-check bison and flex

		bison --version
		flex --version