query in a task of an exercise

[Chrissy Safranski]

I have a reflection reading question with two tasks where the first task to self-assess one's confidence level and the second task is to say what would help increase their confidence level (or the level of someone who didn't understand things as well - plausible deniability that it's something they themselves don't understand!)

For the first task I used a poll, a query element, and it worked great in html and on Runestone.  Reading Question 3: Reflection But when I tried to build the pdf, the conversion got stuck on that poll.  Some trial and error shows that the LaTeX couldn't handle the query element starting right after the item in an enumerate. It kept saying missing item, even though the item was right there.

I discussed with Oscar and Tien today, and we discovered a few ways to fix it: add a title to the task or add a paragraph in the task before the query element, really anything that would put something in between the enumerate item and the start of the query.  I did that, and now the latex compiles just fine (well, until it encounters my first matching problem, but I haven't tried to track that issue down, yet!)  

The reason I'm posting here instead of support is because we came up with some questions about whether a poll makes sense in print, whether a query should be part of an exercise or task at all, and whether it would make sense to allow a free response follow-up to a poll as part of one element instead of needing two different ones.  I did try doing away with tasks and putting the query in the statement of the exercise with a response tag after the statement, like I've done with a Desmos interactive... it looked okay in html, pdf compilation worked, but the pdf didn't display the query as a poll at all - it just ran all the text together with no enumeration.  

A poll can be part of a self-reflection that I think makes sense to ask readers to complete whether they're reading in html or print.  But an answer, hint, etc doesn't make sense on a poll.  

Chrissy

[Rob Beezer]

Dear Chrissy,

Thanks for all the ideas here. #query is the "atomic" element - one thing that
Runestone can record a response to. I mean to package them up into multiple
#query living in blocks called #poll, #survey, #questionaire.

So the work is incomplete and what you are seeing should not be unexpected.
Right now, I would only expect #query to behave when placed as a child of a
division.

These can certainly be replicated in print - there is no randomness, which is
good. Maybe responses are collected on paper? Yes, HTML and Runestone are more
capable, but that should not stop there being a static version.

These are not meant to be parts of an #exercise. No #hint, #answer, #solution
is a good reason why.

We can/should make #poll, #survey, #questionaire activities in Runestone. But
making new blocks (witness open problems) is a big (boring) job.

Rob

On 10/24/25 16:59, Chrissy Safranski wrote:
> I have a reflection reading question with two tasks where the first task to
> self-assess one's confidence level and the second task is to say what would help
> increase their confidence level (or the level of someone who didn't understand
> things as well - plausible deniability that it's something they themselves don't
> understand!)
>
> For the first task I used a poll, a query element, and it worked great in html

> and on Runestone. Reading Question 3: Reflection <https://tanaquil18.github.io/
> matrixcalculations/sec-matrices-elimination.html#rq-matrices-elim-questions-
> poll> But when I tried to build the pdf, the conversion got stuck on that poll.

> Some trial and error shows that the LaTeX couldn't handle the query element
> starting right after the item in an enumerate. It kept saying missing item, even
> though the item was right there.
>
> I discussed with Oscar and Tien today, and we discovered a few ways to fix it:
> add a title to the task or add a paragraph in the task before the query element,
> really anything that would put something in between the enumerate item and the
> start of the query.  I did that, and now the latex compiles just fine (well,
> until it encounters my first matching problem, but I haven't tried to track that
> issue down, yet!)
>
> The reason I'm posting here instead of support is because we came up with some
> questions about whether a poll makes sense in print, whether a query should be
> part of an exercise or task at all, and whether it would make sense to allow a
> free response follow-up to a poll as part of one element instead of needing two
> different ones.  I did try doing away with tasks and putting the query in the
> statement of the exercise with a response tag after the statement, like I've
> done with a Desmos interactive... it looked okay in html, pdf compilation
> worked, but the pdf didn't display the query as a poll at all - it just ran all
> the text together with no enumeration.
>
> A poll can be part of a self-reflection that I think makes sense to ask readers
> to complete whether they're reading in html or print.  But an answer, hint, etc
> doesn't make sense on a poll.
>
> Chrissy
>

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