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The term "Freeform" does not exist in NB4. I understand what it means though - both "Java Project with Existing Sources" and "Java Project with Existing Ant Script" are both "Free-form" projects. I think we should be careful about how we refer to these projects b/c the change from 3.6 to 4.0 is confusing enough as it is. I suspect "Free-form" was used during the development discussions but did not make it into the IDE as a term. I suggest that the new project types "Freeform" in the IDE or don't use the term at all. Example: The following article uses "Free-form" and links to a how-to to create a "Free-form" project, yet that how-to says nothing about "Free-form" and one would expect the term to appear in the IDE when creating a new project. http://www.netbeans.org/kb/articles/freeform-config-40.html
This is something we've had quite a bit of internal discussions about. Our thinking is that "free-form" refers to the project type, and Java Project with Existing Ant Script refers to the individual project template name. I know that although the docs explain this (in the IDE, see Project Templates, About Free-Form Projects, About Standard Projects) the terms presently don't show up in the IDE's UI anywhere. I'm changing the project template descriptions in the New Project wizard to mention what project type each template belongs to. I am, however, against changing the actual template names to use the terms free-form and standard. I think "with Existing Ant Script" is much more descriptive for users who are just starting out, and I don't want users having to decipher the meaning of free-form and standard the first time the create a project.
Correction to Steve's initial report: "Java Project with Existing Sources" is *not* a freeform project, it is a regular j2seproject. The templates for freeform projects are "Java Project with Existing Ant Script" and "Web Project with Existing Ant Script". (Both produce the same kind of project, they just ask different initial questions.)
We've done the following to address this issue: * Asked the docs writers and HIEs for suggestions for terms. This didn't turn up any suggestions that were demonstrable better than these terms. * Changed the online help and the web docs to consistently use these terms. * Listed which templates belong to each type (including showing the project node icons) in the OLH pages describing the different project types. * In the online help, replaced all instances of "free-form project" and "standard project" with glossary pop-ups describing what they are and which project templates they cover. There is still one major problem with using this terminology, however. In the New Project wizard, the general Java folder is called "Standard", which conflicts with our use of the term standard to describe project type. Could we change this folder to say "Generic" or "General"?
Changed Standard to General in the New Project wizard (both top-level and in Samples folder).