Processor-level vfile message reporting

[dmca-glasgow]

Hello,

This idea sort of evolved overnight after asking for advice about implementing some kind of progress bar.

I see that unifiedjs/unified uses the vfile dependency to wrap a string input, but it could be useful if it added some processor-related messages about the order things happen, for example:

<timestamp> parse phase: remark-parse started
<timestamp> parse phase: remark-directive started
<timestamp> parse phase: remark-directive complete
<timestamp> parse phase: remark-parse complete
<timestamp> AST phase: my-custom-plugin started
<timestamp> AST phase: my-custom-plugin complete
<timestamp> AST phase: remark-rehype started
<timestamp> AST phase: remark-rehype complete
<timestamp> compile phase: rehype-stringify started
<timestamp> compile phase: rehype-stringify complete

This is something that would have helped me a lot when I started using unified, to understand that some plugins run in order while some don't, depending on their configuration.

Together with a timestamp, this could also be used for performance analysis and optimisation, like generating flame charts.

And it could also be the mechanism I could use to show useful information to the user on what's happening with their long running process.

[wooorm]

wrap a string input

It’s better to think about it the other way:
unified accepts vfiles and gives back.
passing a string is a shortcut for passing a vfile.

---

I don’t think we should add such debugging messages: unified is used by billions. This would make it slower and bigger for everyone.

This seems quite similar to your Q in 242? This is something that people can do themselves if they want to by injecting a plugin between each plugin.

[dmca-glasgow]

This would make it slower and bigger for everyone.

Fair enough.

This is something that people can do themselves if they want to by injecting a plugin between each plugin.

Ahh ok, it's good to know that this approach is a valid one, I will adventure down this route :)