PG should generate example projects in non-core addons

[bilderbuchi]

It would be great if the PG could get an option to generate the examples of non-core addons which the user has downloaded and placed in OF/addons/. This would really be useful to quickly look at/work with an addon.

The PG already knows about these addons. It would scan for folders in am addon's root directory with example in the name somewhere, and probably check the requisite structure (src folder, addons.make in place, etc), then generate the project file just the way it would if the example were in OF/examples/addons/someExample. Folder depth is the same, so I hope this is just a matter of adjusting the root folder for the example generation process - addons instead of examples.

Thoughts? Feedback?

[elliotwoods]

sounds kind of cool, especially as a lot of addon example projects become 'rotten' as the examples advance
in VS i'm now strictly using a project-per-addon-with-statc-linking design which of course would make my new examples incompatible with project generator if this proposition came through. no biggie though.

that said, it might even be worth opening up the discussion about whether project-per-addon is desirable enough to be standardised as a PG compatible option (many addons may be small enough that project-per-addon is unnecessary).

that also suggests perhaps that PG should be generating .props, .xcconfig, etc and including those in user projects rather than hardcoding the include paths and libs into the project.

anyway, in more direct response to the OP,
as an addon developer who creates addons this scheme (would and) wouldn't work with, i still say it's definitely worth implementing.

[bilderbuchi]

Sorry, but I don't really get what you mean with "one project per addon". If an addons has multiple examples (e.g. ofxUI has loads!), how would that work? How could you run just the one you want, if you only got one project per addon?

[elliotwoods]

ah.
i mean literally a .vcxproj file which defines the addon, which you then include in the solution of your app that you're creating. This facilitates static linking of addon files (no need to build per project) and tracks the addon's files so if anything changes, your old projects should still work
(+equivalent .xcodeproj / etc)

it works well for me (saves a lot of time when working across a bunch of apps with common addons, especially when you're making lots of changes to those addons at the same time).
don't want to clog up your thread with indirectly related ideas though so we can start a new thread maybe if you're interested in talking more

[bilderbuchi]

Ah ic. But the generated addon example projects could still link to that project-per-addon (they're just another app, just not in /examples/...), so I don't see how this would not work with your workflow?

I agree, it's better to take the discussion about one-project-per-addon elsewhere, please open a new issue for that.

[elliotwoods]

yep. it would work, and PG could generate everything appropriately if it was coded to