How can we get the requirement for local installation of remark removed?

[halostatue]

I have a lot of Markdown files where I don’t use Node. The requirement of having to have remark installed in order to use remark-language-server is…unhelpful.

I have seen some issues and PRs for remark-language-server that may resolve this, but as of v 1.1.0, this is still a problem.

Cannot turn on language server without `remark` locally. Run `npm install remark` to enable it

I’m using remark-language-server through vim-lsp-settings.

(Frankly, I consider this a bug, but the “bug report” and "feature request" forms on remark-language-server appear to be designed to reduce bugs reported.)

[wooorm]

We use forms because people don’t provide needed info. And this is an example: we can help you much better if you provide more info.

I personally agree with you that some folks want to use remark-language-server without installing remark locally. Can you make your case for how you are using and what you want there, and in the underlying project? E.g., here: unifiedjs/unified-language-server#33 (comment), and unifiedjs/unified-language-server#30.

[wooorm]

or make it so that it can only work in the context of someone already invested in the remark ecosystem

That’s what I’m getting at with “it’s unclear where this problem is and can be solved, it could be in vim-lsp-settings”. If what you’re saying is true for all vim-lsp-settings users, than they can make such a decision there.

Or it could be reworked so that someone can opt into the remark ecosystem without having to do anything more than npm install -g remark and everything just works (including the remark-language-server) just as prettier does.

This is what the info message you’re seeing is. It could also be accidental that remark is missing, which is why there’s an informational message: “nothing is happening now but if you want things to happen make sure remark is installed”

I think there needs to be a good markdown LS.

I agree with @Murderlon that “language server” can be interpreted in different ways. Interestingly, you mostly talk about linting, which I see as but one part of language servers.
I can see formatting being done without remark being installed/configured locally in certain cases.
I’m not so sure about linting w/o local install or configuration.

[halostatue]

Then I think that I will be recommending the removal of remark-language-server from vim-lsp-settings as specified for markdown, because it obviously isn’t a general case markdown language server.

Yes, formatting is one of several features offered by language servers, but formatting is generally considered less important than linking and debugging by most estimations.

[Murderlon]

Have you read my comment below? It only "isn't" a general case markdown language server in your definition, and vim-lsp-settings doesn't necessarily enforce that definition either. For instance, look at eslint, which is also in vim-lsp-settings. It doesn't work without a local version and settings.

I'm also uncertain what unopinionated "debugging" would mean in markdown.

[halostatue]

I did read your comment below. I disagree with your position, finding it quite unreasonable. What I have seen here is that remark-language-server is a remark language server (it is in the name) and that you’re uninterested in supporting the case where people don’t want to have to opt into a whole ecosystem of tooling and configuration on projects and files where they don’t even apply.

It’s been a while since I’ve done anything with it—and I haven’t done anything with it in terms of eslint-language-server—but I seem to recall that eslint has reasonable behaviour if (1) it’s installed globally and (2) there are no configuration files. That means that I can edit random.js and get something useful out of it. If eslint-language-server only works if there’s a local installation and configuration, then I consider that a bug with eslint-language-server, because eslint does not require those things. It may work better for a given project with those things, but they aren‘t required.

remark-language-server never should have been added to vim-lsp-settings with the way that it works as a markdown language server, because it gives the impression that it will do something useful, and then spits out a useless, annoying message and apparently won’t do anything half as useful as markdownlint through other mechanisms without opting into a tonne of configuration and tooling.

[Murderlon]

I seem to recall that eslint has reasonable behaviour if (1) it’s installed globally and (2) there are no configuration files. That means that I can edit random.js and get something useful out of it.

What is something useful in this case? AFAIK you won't get anything out of eslint if you don't tell it what to do. Regarding global installs, here is their take:

It is also possible to install ESLint globally rather than locally (using npm install eslint --global). However, this is not recommended, and any plugins or shareable configs that you use must be installed locally in either case.

This is the exact same situation with remark. When linting is highly contextualized, with likely big differences between projects, and only opinionated rules — there is no one-size-fits-all. Due note that you are taking a strong stance in this discussion on principle of it not having it work out-of-the-box, but not describing what it would do out of the box. The latter is the problem, because who will agree to what is an error if there are no true errors in markdown?

That doesn't mean nothing can be done out-of-the-box, an interesting example of what it could do is something I coined here: #940

Lastly, whether it belongs in vim-lsp-settings is a discussion to be had there.

[Murderlon]

I think the definition and workings of a language server can be more generic than batteries-included majority of language servers. This is because most of them, which we have grown accustomed to, take the (opinionated) convention over configuration route. And that makes sense, because LSPs like gopls, tsserver, rust-analyser, etc tell you what's right or wrong, like an unused import. You can take that route because you can assume no one will object to getting an warning about that unused import.

Markdown, however, doesn't really have errors or warnings that everyone agrees on for that matter. So when it comes to having remark-language-server work out-of-the-box, you have to ask yourself what would it lint? or format? There are hundreds of plugins doing all kinds of highly opinionated things.

Secondly, most language servers are used standalone. Meaning its config is only used for that. But with remark it's likely the project at hand already has a config file and is being used by remark node or remark CLI, but you just want to have additional editor hints. It's good to share those settings.

I'm not completely against making remark-language-server work out-of-the-box but I'm afraid it wouldn't do much by default.

[halostatue]

This question is fundamentally unanswerable given the discussion above.

[wooorm]

There’s a fundamental mutual disconnect here between what it appears that you offer and what it appears that I want, and we have been speaking at cross purposes for two days.

Right. I feel this disconnect was discovered 2 days ago (Murderlon’s comment, mine around that time too).

but what I want first from any language server is a no-configuration-required asynchronous linter

If you want those things, I recommend you pick either of my first 4 proposed solutions in vim-lsp-settings. You can also work on the other proposed solutions in remark-language-server

[halostatue]

I have already filed an issue to have remark-language-server removed from vim-lsp-settings, since it doesn’t do anything useful in the main case. The answer I have put this response on is the correct answer, despite the fact that you guys keep marking it as "not the answer". You’re not interested in providing a general-purpose markdown language server. That’s great. But it never should have been added to vim-lsp-settings as a markdown language server in the first place by one of your contributors.

If you guys had been less obtuse and instead said from the beginning "we aren’t interested in providing a general purpose markdown language server", much annoyance could have been avoided on all sides. Because that is exactly what I’m reading, and where I will finish reading as I’m unsubscribing from this. Further response will not be productive. I seriously wish you the best, but I have exactly zero interest in helping maintain anything in your ecosystem.

[ChristianMurphy]

@halostatue your hostility is absolutely uncalled for here, chill dude.
You seem more interested in ranting about straw-man arguments, than solving the problem at hand.
As was previously and repeatedly noted there are several viable options.

I have exactly zero interest in helping maintain anything in your ecosystem.

This is open source, if you want something to change, you help contribute.

[remcohaszing]

To get started, I acknowledge the issue @halostatue is running into. I think he falls in a category of users the language server should support, but currently doesn’t: someone who doesn’t use remark, nor desires to, but who is prompted to install remark-language-server by their editor. I did not anticipate this use case when I first started developing remark-language-server, unfortunately this is now a negative user experience and the issue has been long standing.

There’s an open issue for this: #30. I believe this is a very important issue to resolve soon and would love to work on it. Beware this is something I’ve worked on in my spare time. Unfortunately last month has been really busy for me, so I haven’t been able to contribute. I expect to have more time to work on this starting next week.

Once everything’s done @halostatue should no longer be bothered by remark-language-server, unless they actually integrate remark into their workflow, in which case using remark is a delight. :)

[chancez]

I see several potential answers, several of these already mentioned:
....

• Probably some more? Is this enough?

How about an option to just work with a "built-in" remark (as part of the language-server's dependencies) if no remark is found in a project's node_modules or to use a globally installed remark in $PATH?

[chancez]

I am also currently running into this issue over here: williamboman/nvim-lsp-installer#519

I generally just want to install remark globally, or not at all ideally, and just have the remark-language-server work in any project, anywhere with markdown, regardless of whether or not remark is in a local node_modules directory. Having to npm install remark in every project I use is an awful user experience and I'd almost rather not use the language server at all since it comes up every single time I work on a new project and edit the README.md

[AXGKl]

@chancez @halostatue

my workaround - ugly but works:

remark will search upwards your path to find its "local installation", ignoring all node_modules dirs w/o remark. So go to your home and install it there:

cd
npm install remark

Also, same style:

~ ❯ cat .remarkrc.yml  # my example conf, also global:
settings:
  bullet: "-"
  rule: "-"

yeah, you end up with a funny node_modules folder in your $HOME but the formatting I get thru remark made me swallow that pill.

[halostatue]

Yeah. Ugly enough that I wouldn’t ever use it, because it breaks all the conventions. After this discussion, I gave up on remark and honestly don’t miss the formatting compared to what I get from prettier.

[AXGKl]

yeah, you were not exactly in sync here. Guess I'll ditch it as well at the next system clean up cycle, when the initial high of having hammered it to sort of working goes away.
Or symlink it over before editing markdown files, whatever.

Btw, funny: Did not even know that prettier can do markdown, so checked there ... and guess how they do it:

;-)

[wooorm]

Using node_modules folders is not a hack. That’s how the JS ecosystem works.

Not all projects are the same project. Not all projects cater to the same users.
If you want to use prettier, use prettier. If you want to build prettier, or build other things, use remark.
It’s called remark-language-server. Not markdown-language-server or prettier-language-server.