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Following the steps in this Wolfram Community post by Emerson Willard adds a new checkbox option to the New Application Project Wizard in Workbench (10.1.822) for "Full Function Paclet".

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Question: What is a "Full Function Paclet" and what use is checking this option?

I've noticed that the directory structure that is created differs when this option is selected. Compare the TestFullFunction vs TestPaclet directories below:

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There is no init.m in the Kernel folder in the Full Function Paclet case, which causes problems when loading the paclet after installation (as seen in Mike Sollami's comments in the same Wolfram Community post).

EDIT

To answer @Szabolcs's question, the content of PacletInfo.m created when selecting "Full function paclet" is:

Paclet[
  Name -> "TestFullFunction",
  Version -> "0.0.1",
  Loading -> "Automatic",
  MathematicaVersion -> "7+",
  Root -> "TestFullFunction",
  Extensions -> {
    {"Kernel",  Context -> "TestFullFunction`"},
    {"Documentation", Language -> "English"}
}]

and when not selecting "Full function paclet" it is:

Paclet[
  Name -> "TestPaclet",
  Version -> "0.0.1",
  MathematicaVersion -> "6+",
  Extensions -> {
    {"Documentation", Language -> "English"}
}]
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    $\begingroup$ I don't really use the Workbench (it does unpredictable things for me), so could you check if there's a difference in the content of the PacletInfo.m files? Specifically, look at the Kernel extension's Root option. Is it set to "." in both? $\endgroup$
    – Szabolcs
    Commented May 18, 2018 at 13:07
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    $\begingroup$ Is there a difference between the PacletInfo files? $\endgroup$
    – Szabolcs
    Commented May 18, 2018 at 20:07
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    $\begingroup$ "Function paclet" is a somewhat outdated term for a paclet that contains actual Mathematica code and provides functionality (as opposed to just data, or just documentation). The difference is mostly superficial since one type can easily be transformed into the other by editing PacletInfo.m -- there is really no need to restrict oneself to the predefined template. Nowadays, all of these tend to be called simply 'paclets'. $\endgroup$
    – ilian
    Commented May 20, 2018 at 19:34
  • $\begingroup$ @ilian that'd be useful as an answer in case we want to point someone to it $\endgroup$
    – b3m2a1
    Commented Jun 14, 2018 at 1:50

1 Answer 1

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Transitioning my comment into an answer, as suggested by @b3m2a1

"Function paclet" is a somewhat outdated term for a paclet that contains actual Mathematica code and provides functionality (as opposed to just data, or just documentation).

The difference is mostly superficial since one type can easily be transformed into the other by editing PacletInfo.m -- there is really no need to restrict oneself to the predefined template.

Nowadays, all of these tend to be called simply 'paclets'.

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