Introducing Showcases for INET

[Rudolf Hornig]

Dear INET users,

In the latest INET 3.6.0 release we have introduced a new class of 'example simulations' called showcases. While INET contains a lot of samples in the examples folder, they are somewhat unstructured and hard to understand. The main reason for this is, that these example networks were originally created by the developers to test their code and those tests later turned to examples. Usually, they have no clear goal and sometimes it is hard to tell what they are supposed to demonstrate. Additionally, they combine several features (sometimes unnecessarily) so it's a bit hard to figure out what is important and what is just needed for technical reasons...

To help INET users more effectively, we would like to introduce a new class of examples called showcases. They moved into a different folder to avoid confusion. They come with a short description that clearly states the goal of the sample, then describes a bit the model itself, and finally in also explains what results you should expect from the model. This would allow us to use these descriptions as a teaching material and understand how the specific feature is working even without running the actual example. We intend to add more and more showcases over the time and we would also very much welcome your contributions in similar format. The tentative plan is that we grow the number of showcases to cover all INET features and then retire the old 'examples' folder and use them as tests instead.

If you check the 'showcases' folder in the INET distribution, you will see several samples already. If you have ideas for additional ones or better, would contribute new ones (with similar structure), please do not hesitate. We believe that good documentation is something that INET is badly missing and this is the first step towards that. We have already published some of the showcase descriptions for your enjoyment :) 

Stay tuned for the rest of them coming in the following weeks and keep the feedback coming...

The OMNeT++ dev team