OK, time for a Stage Report.
--- Examples Done ---So far, I have reviewed, occasionally edited, made a metadata file for and added to my gitlab repo just over a 100 examples, all sourced from <laz-dir>/examples . Thats just about all viable examples in that dir. I have excluded a number, most because they are "old school", built without ObjectInspector. Yes, I know its viable and even, some times a good thing to do it all in code but for someone looking for a specific example, its a distraction. I suggest one or two examples of that approach is all thats needed.
Some projects made it to gitlab with the keyword "Need Work", ones that need better docs or some other fix. I have taken the liberty of fixing some obvious ones myself.
If you want to look through the list, in random order, see
https://gitlab.com/dbannon/laz_examples/-/blob/main/projects.md--- Tools ---I have a viable tool to help with this processing that also launches a potential "Examples Window", what the end user will see if it makes it into Lazarus. The Examples Window will download a master metadata file (if required) and displays the contents, allows selecting by category and allows searching by keyword. And will download an indicated project if required.
Should build cleanly for most people but most will need to alter the default directories I use. Easy for anyone on this list.
https://gitlab.com/dbannon/laz_examples/-/tree/main/Utility/ExScanner--- Other Examples ---The Lazarus bundle has a large number (maybe 200 or so) more projects scattered through the tree, mostly associated with particular components. Here I need some discussion of what should be included.
Tests - lots of what is currently considered Examples are in fact Tests, sometimes for a specif bug and sometimes to exercise a particular component or set of components. Some are useful as examples and some are not, maybe because they focus too much on testing and have no educational intention.
I believe Tests should stay where they are and ones that are useful as Examples be also copied to the Examples system.
Non Tests - ones intended as examples, some are good, some broken, some irrelevant. Quite a lot depend on optional units but without metadata user has not idea. Some appear to depend on units that are now part of other, default installed, units. In other words, its going to be time consuming and ideally done by someone with some familiarity with the specialized component, DBase, LazReport, Chart etc.
--- Questions ---* Am I on the right track ?
* Am I correct in excluding all but a few example projects that don't use the Object Inspector ?
* Am I being too ambitious ? Should we leave the Example code where it is and just graft on the metadata somehow ?
Davo