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Block Parser: Start building a unified block/HTML parser. #6381

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@dmsnell dmsnell commented Apr 10, 2024

Many blocks are starting to be modified with the HTML API. Given that the HTML API will already be parsing block content, and also that it reads HTML comments along the way, it might make sense to combine the multiple passes of block and HTML parsing into one.

Builds on ideas explored in #5705


Combining the parsers could:

  • introduce new before and after hooks where blocks can be inserted. this could introduce a new block hooks mechanism which doesn't require parsing and traversing the block structure, but can "tag along" with the normal process.

  • provide new insight and context into the block parsing, such as knowing where in the HTML a block is, or where, in a block tree the given HTML is.

  • improve efficiency by lazily-decoding the JSON attributes and by reusing the input string rather than breaking it up into many substring copies.

  • replace block bindings as blocks are parsed, avoiding yet another parsing pass.

  • process Interactivity API directives as the document is parsed, linearly, and in a streaming fashion. this would avoid the need to run the Server Directive Processor over the entire document after it's already been parsed.

  • post-process block output to run global policies concerning attribute values and allowable HTML markup.

It could slow some things down, however, which otherwise wouldn't require the block and HTML parsing. For example, the block parser is fast, if memory hungry. Parsing HTML along the way could slow it down.

Screenshot 2024-04-11 at 12 28 09 AM

Many blocks are starting to be modified with the HTML API. Given that
the HTML API will already be parsing block content, and also that it
reads HTML comments along the way, it might make sense to combine the
multiple passes of block and HTML parsing into one.

Combining the parsers could:

 - introduce new _before_ and _after_ hooks where blocks can be
   inserted. this could introduce a new block hooks mechanism which
   doesn't require parsing and traversing the block structure, but
   can "tag along" with the normal process.

 - provide new insight and context into the block parsing, such as
   knowing where in the HTML a block is, or where, in a block tree
   the given HTML is.

 - improve efficiency by lazily-decoding the JSON attributes and by
   reusing the input string rather than breaking it up into many
   substring copies.

 - process Interactivity API directives as the document is parsed,
   linearly, and in a streaming fashion. this would avoid the need to
   run the Server Directive Processor over the entire document after
   it's already been parsed.

 - post-process block output to run global policies concerning
   attribute values and allowable HTML markup.

It could slow some things down, however, which otherwise wouldn't
require the block and HTML parsing. For example, the block parser is
fast, if memory hungry. Parsing HTML along the way could slow it down.
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