Should matsim-example-project be a template repository?

[mrieser]

Currently, the matsim-example-project repository is just a normal repository. Users can download or fork it to use it. But this is a bit limited, as e.g. each user can fork a repository only once, so it's not that easy to have multiple matsim projects.

I recently found out that GitHub allows repositories to be marked as "template repositories" (see documentation). In such a repository, instead of forking it, users get a button "Use this template" instead to easily start a new project with the repositories content as start. For an example, look at the IntelliJ-Plugin-Template.

I thought this could also be useful for the matsim-example-project.

Advantages:

• Users can create multiple MATSim projects (in contrast to forks)
• No erroneous pull requests to the example-project-repository

Disadvantages:

• Users cannot easily upgrade to an updated state in the example-project. But they can still update the version number in the pom.xml, which will likely be enough for most users.
• We likely won't see who uses MATSim anymore that easily (Currently, it's as easy as looking at the list of forks of the example-project)

Any opinions on this?

[michalmac]

I think that's a good idea. The typical use case for the example project is closer to the idea of creating from template rather than forking.