[WWdevel] Discrepancy in fun_cmp behavior in WW 2

[Arnold P. <ap...@ma...>]

Hi,

There is a significant difference in how fun_cmp displays "correct 
answers" in WW 1.9 and WW 2.  This has to do with displaying correct 
answers symbolically.  For num_cmp the behavior in WW 1.9 and WW 2 is 
the same and it's easy (though maybe not well know) to display 
correct answers e.g. as 2*cos(6) rather than the difficult to 
understand 1.92034057330073.  The trick is to give the answer as a 
string --- see 
http://webhost.math.rochester.edu/webworkdocs/discuss/msgReader$651

Since fun_cmp takes string answers, this behavior was automatic in WW 
1.  For example if one asked for an antiderivative of 7x^12 and gave 
fun_cmp "(7/13)x^13" as the answer, the student in WW 1.9 sees 
(7/13)x^13 as the correct answer.  In WW 2, the student sees 
.538462*x^13.  Would it be easy (I guess this is a question for 
Davide) to recover the WW 1 behavior?

Arnie

Prof. Arnold K. Pizer
Dept. of Mathematics
University of Rochester
Rochester, NY 14627
(585) 275-7767