[CHANGE] WeBWorK exercises, and their conclusions

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Rob Beezer

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Dec 12, 2022, 1:56:20 PM12/12/22
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Mostly an announcement that is rather technical and not too important for
authors. But if you like to use a "conclusion" in your WeBWorK problems, then
you will want to read through to the end about a small change.

I have made changes so that the pre-processing step better pares down versions
of WeBWorK exercises coming from a WW server. This means that a conversion
meant for static formats will "see" a WW exercise looking more like any other
"regularly" authored exercise.

Why? Now conversions to EPUB or braille, or anywhere else we don't have
Javascript, will all get a version of a WW exercise they can handle, with no
additional code necessary. And the conversion to LaTeX has been freed of a lot
of WW-specific code, it is just another conversion to a static format. (This is
all based on experience making static versions of Runestone exercises via the
pre-processor.)

One change as a result. Especially for OPL problems, we have an "introduction"
and a "conclusion" that would allow you to tie a generic problem into your text
(e.g., explain different notation). That goes

exercise
introduction
webwork
conclusion

So the "conclusion" appears after any hint or solution from the WW problem. In
order to make a generic static exercise, the introduction and conclusion get
melded into the start and finish of a single "statement", then there are answers
and solutions. So the conclusion appears a bit sooner than before. Only for
static formats, and only if you like to display answers and solutions in the
narrative, not in some back-of-the-book appendix.

At Alex's suggestion, I was able to move the WW conclusion outside of the entire
exercise, but only for "inline" placements. But then this will be "lost" for
something like a solutions manual (maybe that'd be OK?). In any event, I backed
that change out. seems a bit fraught to me. So if having a conclusion later is
critical to you, I'd suggest moving it manually in your source, after the
exercise, and living with the consequences.
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