Starting point for helpers design doc

Author: GeoffreyBooth

README.md

@@ -32,10 +32,10 @@ This team is spun off from the [Modules team](https://github.com/nodejs/modules)
 
 - [ ] Move loaders off thread
 
-- [ ] Add helper/utility functions [`module`](https://nodejs.org/api/module.html) module
+- [ ] Add [helper/utility functions](./doc/design/helpers.md) to the [`module`](https://nodejs.org/api/module.html) module
 
    - [ ] Start with the functions that make up the ESM resolution algorithm as defined in the [spec](https://nodejs.org/api/esm.html#resolver-algorithm-specification). Create helper functions for each of the functions defined in that psuedocode: `esmResolve`, `packageImportsResolve`, `packageResolve`, `esmFileFormat`, `packageSelfResolve`, `readPackageJson`, `packageExportsResolve`, `lookupPackageScope`, `packageTargetResolve`, `packageImportsExportsResolve`, `patternKeyCompare`. (Not necessarily all with these exact names, but corresponding to these functions from the spec.)
-   
+
    - [ ] Follow up with similar helper functions that make up what happens within Node’s internal `load`. (Definitions to come.)
 
 - [ ] Support loading source when the return value of `load` has `format: 'commonjs'`. See https://github.com/nodejs/node/issues/34753#issuecomment-735921348 and https://github.com/nodejs/loaders-test/blob/835506a638c6002c1b2d42ab7137db3e7eda53fa/coffeescript-loader/loader.js#L45-L50.
@@ -47,7 +47,7 @@ We hope that moving loaders off thread will allow us to preserve an async `resol
 - [ ] Convert `resolve` from async to sync https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/43363
 
    - [ ] Add an async `resolve` to [`module`](https://nodejs.org/api/module.html) module
-   
+
    - [ ] Consider an API for async operations before resolution begins, such as `preImport` https://github.com/nodejs/loaders/pull/89
 
 After this, we should get user feedback regarding the developer experience; for example, is too much boilerplate required? Should we have a separate `transform` hook? And so on. We should also investigate and potentially implement the [technical improvements](doc/use-cases.md#improvements) on our to-do list.

doc/design/helpers.md

@@ -0,0 +1,49 @@
+# Helpers
+
+A user loader that defines a hook might need to reimplement all of Node’s original version of that hook, if the user hook can’t call `next` to get the result of the internal version. A case where this might occur is input that Node would error on, for example a `resolve` hook trying to resolve a protocol that Node doesn’t support. For such a hook, it could involve a lot of boilerplate or dependencies to reimplement all of the logic contained within Node’s internal version of that hook. We plan to create helper functions to reduce that need.
+
+These will be added in stages, starting with helpers for the `resolve` hook that cover the various steps that Node’s internal `resolve` performs.
+
+## `resolve` helpers
+
+### `packageResolve`
+
+Public reference to https://github.com/nodejs/node/blob/3350d9610864af3219de7dd20e3ac18b3c214c52/lib/internal/modules/esm/resolve.js#L847-L910.
+
+Existing signature:
+
+```js
+/**
+ * @param {string} specifier
+ * @param {string | URL | undefined} base
+ * @param {Set<string>} conditions
+ * @returns {resolved: URL, format? : string}
+ */
+function packageResolve(specifier, base, conditions) {
+```
+
+New signature, where many supporting functions that this function calls are passed in (and if left undefined, the default versions are used):
+
+```js
+function packageResolve(specifier, base, conditions, {
+  parsePackageName,
+  getPackageScopeConfig,
+  packageExportsResolve,
+  findPackageJson, // Part of current packageResolve extracted into its own function
+  getPackageConfig,
+  legacyMainResolve,
+}) {
+```
+
+The middle of the function, where it walks up the disk looking for `package.json`, would be moved into a separate function `findPackageJson` that would follow a pattern similar to this, where the various file system-related functions could all be overridden (so that a virtual filesystem could be simulated, for example).
+
+### `findPackageJson`
+
+Extracted from `packageResolve` https://github.com/nodejs/node/blob/3350d9610864af3219de7dd20e3ac18b3c214c52/lib/internal/modules/esm/resolve.js#L873-L887 plus the `while` condition:
+
+```js
+function findPackageJson(packageName, base, isScoped, {
+  fileURLToPath,
+  tryStatSync,
+})
+```

doc/design/overview.md

@@ -13,6 +13,8 @@ There are currently [three loader hooks](https://github.com/nodejs/node/tree/mas
 
 * `globalPreload`: Defines a string of JavaScript to be injected into the application global scope.
 
+In order to reduce boilerplate within hooks, new [helper functions](./helpers.md) will be made available.
+
 ## Chaining
 
 Custom loaders are intended to chain to support various concerns beyond the scope of core, such as build tooling, mocking, transpilation, etc.