Has been felt need for examples in the documentation.

Bah, tu tais complementamente certo, faz muito falta um exemplo ou at? alguns n?.

Everton Vieira wrote

Has been felt need for examples in the documentation.

i haven't yet gotten to this stage of my stack of "round to its" (joke "getting around to it") and this seems ok time... not only are examples needed but also sample output... i have been digging in the help, as many know, trying to get back my "coding legs" and have found examples that didn't have any output so that one could see what the result would be with certain input... i've also seen examples that said something to the effect of "see this example over here" which took you to another help item that did actually have some example code that may or may not contain the topic you were looking at before... and again, there is the need for sample output from sample input...

not only should these examples be in/on the wiki, but they should also be in the offline local documentation... offline local documentation being the most important (IMhO)...

Some parts of the wiki could be generated by the same database that could also generate the offline help. I`m not well aware of the development of the help system but i bet some is been done in this way. After all, is far well know the benefits of have centralized data. And i`m not aware how the help data are been stored, but if it is like a relational database then would be possible to store more than one example for each case, and more, should be store also who contributed with that example and when. Is important that the work of a friend be acknowledge. And that information should be elegantly showed on offline help and also online.

Now, to make easy and secure that kind of contribution, i bet is a challenge.

Easy is about to click a button (or a link inside the help), login the account, and send the data.

And of course theres the noise that could be generated, but to prevent that is also about to make the means secured, and the login is something that helps in that.

And of course we should concern about the elegancy of the environment and none of this could be ugly.

There exists an examples directory in your Lazarus installation.

While RTL and FCL topics can be demonstrated in simple console applications, LCL topics usually require big sample applications. See how e.g. examples/listview/listview.lpi demonstrates the capabilities of a TListView.

About things like callback functions, which are common to many components, there should exist references to examples that *also* demonstrate such features, amongst possibly many others.

Just an idea: It could help to "tag" the existing examples with keywords, so that a search in the examples directory could reveal all applicable examples. A keywords.txt or <project>.keys file in every subdirectory could be used for tagging, for a global search in the examples. A list of "registered" keywords could be kept in another file, e.g. in examples/tags.txt.

DoDi

yes and i've been thru there but i'm speaking more of on the documentation side of the fence...

eg: http://www.freepascal.org/docs-html/rtl/sysutils/datetostr.html

there should be sample output and definitely something for the formatsettings... http://www.freepascal.org/docs-html/rtl/sysutils/tformatsettings.html definitely doesn't help and i spent hours digging in there (the site) trying to find something... i finally got to
http://www.freepascal.org/docs-html/rtl/sysutils/formatdatetime.html and found a little bit of help which i still had to guess at some stuff and i have *just now* noticed the link to
http://www.freepascal.org/docs-html/rtl/sysutils/formatchars.html which appears to offer more than what i had found before... but even that page needs some concrete alpha-numerical examples of what the output would look like...

While RTL and FCL topics can be demonstrated in simple console applications, LCL topics usually require big sample applications. See how e.g. examples/listview/listview.lpi demonstrates the capabilities of a TListView.

i see it, yes but i'm lost in all the other controls' code in there... running the project doesn't help me to understand a listview, either :? yes, i see the effect of some of the controls but, for example, it is not clear to me why i can select "new 1" or "New 2" but not "Sub 1"... neither is it clear to me what the items and columns tabs are for... i can't even get anything to react when i choose the columns tab and click about :(

About things like callback functions, which are common to many components, there should exist references to examples that *also* demonstrate such features, amongst possibly many others.

agreed... i think... but yes, everything should be documented that can be... even basic things like what a "callback" is... i see/hear that and i think telco stuff :(

that might be ok but these examples like listview need some documentation explaining them a bit, too... as i wrote above, i get lost in all the other controls' code :?

What the list thinks about this concepts:

* The benefits of have centralized data on the help.
* If it is like a relational database then would be possible to store more than one example for each case.
* Should be store also who contributed with that example and when.
* Is important that the work of a friend be acknowledge.
* That information should be elegantly showed on offline help and also online help.
* Make easy and secure that kind of contribution.
* Easy is about to click a button (or a link inside the help), login the account, and send the data.
* The noise that could be generated, to prevent that the login is something that helps.
* Take care of the elegancy of the environment and none of it could be ugly.

Please suggest a pleasant solution. Perhaps a separate overview topic could be added, explaining the date and time formatting. "Using Dates and Times"...

This example demonstrates the effects of various property settings, and how to access detailed information in code.

running the project doesn't help me to understand a listview, either :? yes, i see the effect of some of the controls but, for example, it is not clear to me why i can select "new 1" or "New 2" but not "Sub 1"...

A ListView is not a Grid.

neither is it clear to me what the items and columns tabs are for...

It should be obvious, from the buttons in those pages, that they demonstrate adding and removing items and columns.

i can't even get anything to react when i choose the columns tab and click about :(

The About menu shows information about the application, not help.

Again feel free to supply whatever you think would be better :-) Topic "Using ListView"?

Topic "Using Callbacks"?

DoDi

that might be ok as long as it is prominent... i've been on several of those pages numerous times and the links just do not stand out in a very visible way... i was very surprised to find the link i did considering i had been back and forth to the previous page(s) containing ig a huge number of times :?

so it is more than just a listview demonstrator?

wotz a "grid"? remember, i do not have any delphi experience nor turbovision, really... i've always written straight forward, non-complicated apps and tools with no graphics or other things to slow processing or bloat unnecessarily... in other words, i've always written my code like a bikini... short and to the point ;)

> neither is it clear to me what the items and columns tabs are for... It should be obvious, from the buttons in those pages, that they demonstrate adding and removing items and columns.

yeah, i guess but...

> i can't even get anything to react when i choose the columns tab and click > about :( The About menu shows information about the application, not help.

nonononono... "click about" meaning "clicking on random stuff to try to figure it out"...

Again feel free to supply whatever you think would be better :-) Topic "Using ListView"?

i don't have any idea what to supply... it is all alien to me but i'm trying to learn it with the materials, what few they are, at hand... i don't even know why i would want to use a "grid" or "listview", TBH... what is their basic purpose? is this documented anywhere or is it all just "here! we can do this with that. ya got the code if ya wanna know more."

yes, i guess that would be ok as would one for listview and grid ;)