** Using WeBWorK **

I've made a chart of most of the macros currently available for use in WeBWorK problem (this includes macros from union_problib/macros, but not yet the macros from nau_problib/macros)

It was made essentially by searching for /^sub / in the macro files, followed by a bit of text cleaning. You can find them displayed on the twiki at

http://devel.webwork.rochester.edu/twiki/bin/view/Webwork/PGmacrosByFile

and at

http://devel.webwork.rochester.edu/twiki/bin/view/Webwork/PGmacrosSortedAlphabetically

The first link is easier to keep up to date. The chart is already slightly obsolete since I've made some changes in the macro files. I am also writing notes indicating which subroutines should be deprecated, which ones are really obsolete and should never be used, which ones are actually internal and should not be available to a problem writer and so forth.

It's on the twiki, so you are all invited to help with the editing and notating.

There are over 900 macros -- way too many -- so some consolidation is in order and the place to start would be to try to get a handle on what has already been produced and how they overlap.

One of my desires is to replace the calls such as strict_num_cmp( $ans, .001,'%0.5f')

by

num_cmp($ans, relTol=>.001, format=>'%0.5f', mode=>'strict')

and

strict_num_cmp_list(.001, '%0.5f',$ans1, $ans2, $ans3);

by

num_cmp([$ans1, $ans2, $ans3], relTol=>.001, mode=>'strict', format=>'%0.5f');

perhaps a dozen different subroutines can be replaced by using num_cmp with either a single answer, or a reference to an array of answers and then followed by a list of parameters.

This is fairly similar to the style that Mathematica uses and I think that it will be easier to remember, document and maintain.

I'm thinking of placing these calls in a "PGcompatibility.pl" file where they can be called for those who want to use them, but taking them out of PGanswermacros.pl and modifying the problems in rochester_problib that use them.

Similar savings can be made with the fun_cmp family.

This will also cut down substantially on the size of PGanswermacros.pl

I invite your comments. Reply to this post.

Take care,

Mike

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