Examples "ready-to-use" with only necessary config files
It could be interesting for new users to have "ready-to-use" examples when downloading the last official release or when compiling opSimulation. For the moment only a few examples (Common and PCM) can be directly run after download. For the other examples, some copy/paste/rename/overwrite steps are necessary in order to simulate them. These steps are indeed not technically complicated, but in my opinion make the program less user-friendly.
Current examples: after downloading opsimulation (e.g. from https://download.eclipse.org/openpass/releases/opSimulation) the user has to copy and rename the Common folder and then copy the content of the examples into the copied config folder, and overwrite some files:
- Advantage: the user can clearly identify the files which were modified for the example, by comparing them with the files in the Common folder. The new user should in this case be aware that the Common folder is the basis for all the examples.
- Inconvenient: some unnecessary files (e.g.
PedestrianModelsCatalog.xosc
or thesystemConfigBluePrint.xml
in the PCM example) are copied in the configs. For new users, having unnecessary files in the config folder complicates the understanding of the files dependencies (e.g. why is there aPedestrianModelsCatalog.xosc
file if my simulation only considers vehicles and no pedestrians?).
Ready-to-use examples: for each example of the Configurations
, only install the files necessary to run the example(e.g. PedestrianModelsCatalog.xosc
in simulations involving pedestrians and not in the others, no systemConfigBluePrint.xml
in the PCM example)
- Advantage: after downloading, the user can immediately run simulations and get an idea of the results delivered by the program
- Inconvenient: the user cannot clearly identify the files which were modified for the example
I do not think that the examples
folder in the repository should be modified, it is just a matter of preparing the configs when installing them.