diff --git a/tracer/README b/tracer/README
index c16a565b5d..606450bc76 100644
--- a/tracer/README
+++ b/tracer/README
@@ -9,6 +9,12 @@ the tool writer will subclass from the Analyzer class and override methods:
 Each of those is optional. The entry field is the parsed log line. In most cases
 the tools will parse the structure contained in event[Parser.F_MESSAGE].
 
+TODO: maybe do apply_tracer_entry() and revert_tracer_entry() - 'apply' will
+patch the shared state forward and 'revert' will 'apply' the inverse. This would
+let us go back from a state. An application should still take snapshots to allow
+for efficient jumping around. If that is the case we could also always go forward
+from a snapshot.
+
 A tool will use an AnalysisRunner to chain one or more analyzers and iterate the
 log. A tool can also replay the log multiple times. If it does, it won't work in
 'streaming' mode though (streaming mode can offer live stats).
@@ -25,6 +31,8 @@ do e.g.
   pad.peer().parent()    # peer element
   pad.parent().state()   # element state
 
+This would allow us to e.g. get a pipeline graph at any point in the log.
+
 ### improve class handling
 We already parse the tracer classes. Add helpers that for numeric values that
 extract them, and aggregate min/max/avg. Consider other statistical information
@@ -60,6 +68,17 @@ Like latency stats, for cpu load. Process cpu load + per thread cpu load.
 
 Combine various stats tools into one.
 
+
+# todo
+## all tools
+* need some (optional) progress reporting
+
+## structure parser
+* add an optional compiled regexp matcher an constructor param
+* then we'll parse the whole structure with a single regexp
+  * this will only parse the top-level structure, we'd then check if there are
+    nested substructure and handle them
+
 # Improve tracers
 ## log
 * the log tracer logs args and results into misc categories
@@ -70,3 +89,29 @@ Combine various stats tools into one.
     * if we also log structures, we need to log the 'function' as the
       structure-name, also fields would be key=(type)val, instead of key=value
     * if we switch to gst_tracer_record_log, we'd need to register 27 formats :/
+## object ids
+When logging GstObjects in PTR_FORMAT, we log the name. Unfortunately the name
+is not neccesarilly unique over time. Same goes for the object address.
+When logging a tracer record we need a way for the scope fileds to uniquely
+relate to objects.
+a) parse object creation and destruction and build <name:id>-maps in the tracer
+   tools:
+   new-element message: gst_util_seqnum_next() and assoc with name
+   <new stats>: get id by name and get data record via id
+
+   if we go this way, the stats tracer would log name in regullar record (which
+   makes them more readable).
+
+FIXME:
+- if we use stats or log and latency, do we log latency messages twice?
+  grep -c ":: latency, " logs/trace.all.log
+  8365
+
+  grep ":: event, " logs/trace.all.log | grep -c "name=(string)latency"
+  63
+
+  seems to not happen, regardless of order in GST_TRACERS="latency;stats"
+
+- why do we log element-ix for buffer, event, ... log-entries in the stats
+  tracer? We log new-pad, when the pad get added to a parent, so we should know
+  the element already