[WWdevel] A table of existing macros

[Michael E. G. <ga...@ma...>]

Hello all,


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=>'%o.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 list.

Take care,

Mike