Homework Systems

[Rob Beezer]

We have integrated numerous homework systems into PreTeXt, with a lot of help
from a lot of folks. Here's a list, with principal maintainers (apologies if I
missed someone!):

* "Traditional" PreTeXt short answer - Rob, and many others

* WeBWorK - Alex, Brad, and lots of interested helpful parties

* Runestone - Brad (Javascript, online hosting), Rob (markup, static versions)

* Interactive FITB - Brian W, integrated with Runestone Javascript

* MyOpenMath - Mark F, also as liason to MyOpenMath project

* Doenet - Duane, et al., Brad, functional as an #interactive, reporting to
Runestone

* STACK - Georg Osborne, now functional

With the exception of Doenet, these systems all have a facility for creating
static versions of exercises (with fixed consistent instances of randomized
portions), often from servers maintained by the respective projects.

But every system has its own quirks, exceptions, and one-off processes - there
is not really a unified approach to how all these existing projects have been
integrated, just broad principles. I'll say it is a testimony to our overall
approach that they have been integrated at all. ;-) But my reason for writing
is to make the point that keeping these systems working, or adding new features,
takes a large portion of my development time, even with the dedicated work of
the folks listed, and folks not listed. Each system has its strengths. But
there is also a lot of overlap.

So I want to draw a line in the sand. Entertaining YAHS will have to clear a
high bar. I wonder if there are even any homework systems left for us to look
at? ;-)

Thanks again to everybody who has helped with getting these systems working
(which is *not* simply the names listed above).

Rob

PS: None of this should be viewed in any way as any sort of fit of pique based
on recent work. To the contrary - getting STACK over the hump, and getting
Doenet to talk to Runestone (thanks, Brad!) seemed like a good time to express a
long-help view.

[William Haynes]

Hi Rob,

>> I wonder if there are even any homework systems left for us to look at? ;-)

I'm not asking you to support YAHS, but I would like to point out Numbas (https://www.numbas.org.uk) as a mature, flexible, and powerful homework system worthy of consideration.  I have written many Numbas problems and have successfully included them in my html book in an iframe.  I haven't attempted to produce static versions for other outputs, but that should be possible.  If I ever get it functioning, I'll let you know. :)

Will

[Rob Beezer]

On 12/30/25 07:51, William Haynes wrote:
> I'm not asking you to support YAHS

Thank-you. ;-)

Yes, I have heard of NUMBAS. But don't know much about it.

If it interests you, it might be possible to support SPLICE in your problems and
then report scores/progress to a gradebook, while hosted on Runestone. Brad has
been working on this lately with two different sets of non-Runestone-native
problem types.

Keep us posted on progress. Notice I almost never say never.

Thanks,
Rob