Re: Help with new exporter

[Robert Klein <kleinrob@mpip-mainz.mpg.de>]

Hi John.

thank you for the example org file.

I made two kinds of changes, one in the org-latex-classes definition and
one in the .org-file itself:


I changed the class definition for org-latex-classes to

#+begin_src emacs-lisp
        ("exam"
         "\\documentclass[12pt]{exam}
% BEGIN exam Defaults
[NO-DEFAULT-PACKAGES]
[PACKAGES]

\\usepackage{palatino}
\\extrawidth{.5in}
\\extraheadheight{-.75in}
\\extrafootheight[-3in]{-.75in}
\\pagestyle{headandfoot}
\\NoKey
\\NumberOfVersions{1}
\\renewcommand\\thequestion{\\Roman{question}}
\\renewcommand\\thepartno{\\arabic{partno}}
\\renewcommand\\partlabel{\\thepartno.}

% END exam Defaults
"
         ("\\begin{questions}{%s}" "\\end{questions}")
         ("\\question{%s}" . "\\question*{%s}")
         ("\\begin{parts}{%s}" "\\end{parts}")
         ("\\part{%s}" . "\\part*{%s}"))
#+end_src


Note the {%s} after the each opening clause.  I left the unnumbered part
of questions and parts out in my version, as I didn't see a difference
(no "unnumbered" \begin{questions} / \begin{parts} in the exam class?).

The documentation of org-latex-classes in ox-latex.el seems to be
confusing; at one place it says "A %s formatter is mandatory in each
section string and will be replaced by the title of the section." an at
another "The opening clause should have a %s to represent the section
title.".  Probably the "should have" in the second place ought to be a
"must have".


Anyway, in the .org file I added a space character to all empty
headings, e.g.

****

Without the space I first for a log of "\textbf{**}" in the output.


After both changes the resulting document looks like something you might
have wanted in the first place.


I got some weird numberings throughout the document, but this may be a
result of my setup.  Could you please check this, and describe anything
weird in your results?

Best regards
Robert





On 07/10/2013 06:32 PM, John Rakestraw wrote:
> Greetings, list --
> 
> I've been using Philip Hirschhorn's exam documentclass
> (http://www-math.mit.edu/~psh/#ExamCls) for several years to produce my
> exams. I've been writing the exams in org-mode and using the exporter to
> produce the pdf.
> 
> I've recently moved to org 8.0. (I like it!) I've successfully converted
> all of my other export class definitions, but I can't figure out how to
> define the exam class so that I can export my exams. I've pasted below
> the class definition that worked with the previous exporter (I know it's
> clumsy, but it worked) and also a sample version of what I need in the
> tex file.
> 
> (I know I could just write the tex file directly, but it's nice to have
> all of the course materials included in human-readable form in the
> course org file.)
> 
> My problem is that I can't get the exporter to produce chunks like this:
> 
> \begin{questions}
> \question
> A paragraph describing how the students should answer the following
> questions.
> \begin{parts}
> \part
> A multi-line question
> \part
> Another multi-line question
> \end{parts}
> \end{questions}
> 
> Thanks for whatever advice anyone can offer.
> 
> --John
> 
> 
> Old template:
> --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
>       (setq org-export-latex-classes (cons '("exam"
>     ### I know that in the new exporter I need to change this variable to
>     "org-latex-classes" ###
>       "% BEGIN exam Defaults
>       [NO-DEFAULT-PACKAGES]
>       [PACKAGES]
>       \\documentclass[12pt]{exam}
>       \\usepackage{palatino}
>       \\extrawidth{.5in}
>       \\extraheadheight{-.75in}
>       \\extrafootheight[-3in]{-.75in}
>       \\pagestyle{headandfoot}
>       \\NoKey
>       \\NumberOfVersions{1}
>       \\renewcommand\\thequestion{\\Roman{question}}
>       \\renewcommand\\thepartno{\\arabic{partno}}
>       \\renewcommand\\partlabel{\\thepartno.}
> 
> 
>       % END exam Defaults
> 
>       "
>              ("\\begin{questions}" "\\end{questions}"
> "\\begin{questions}" "\\end{questions}")
>              ("\\question" . "\\question*")
>              ("\\begin{parts}" "\\end{parts}" "\\begin{parts}"
> "\\end{parts}")
>              ("\\part" . "\\part*"))
> 
>       org-export-latex-classes))
> 
> --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---
> 
> An example of what I need the exporter to produce:
> 
> --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
> \documentclass[letterpaper]{exam}
> \extrawidth{.5in}
> \extraheadheight[.3in]{-.75in}
> \extrafootheight{-.25in}
> \raggedright
> \renewcommand\thequestion{\Roman{question}}
> \renewcommand\thepartno{\arabic{partno}}
> \renewcommand\partlabel{\thepartno.}
> \firstpageheader{Name: \enspace\makebox[3in]{\hrulefill}\\Exam
> 1\\}{}{Introductory Class \\May 7, 2013\\}
> \begin{document}
> 
> \begin{coverpages}
> text describing how the exam should be printed and prepared for
> distribution.
> \end{coverpages}
> 
> 
> 
> \begin{questions}
> \question
> A paragraph here describes this section and tells students how many
> terms to
> identify.
> \begin{parts}
> \part
> term 1
> \vspace*{\fill}
> \part
> term 2
> \vspace*{\fill}
> \part
> term 3
> \vspace*{\fill}
> \part
> term 4
> \vspace*{\fill}
> \part
> term 5
> \vspace*{\fill}
> \part
> term 6
> \vspace*{\fill}
> \part
> term 7
> \vspace*{\fill}
> \part
> term 7
> \vspace*{\fill}
> \part
> term 8
> \end{parts}
> \end{questions}
> \newpage
> \fillwithdottedlines{\fill}
> \newpage
> \begin{questions}
> \question
> Short Answer. A paragraph describing how I want students to respond to the
> following questions. I want to leave vertical space filled with dotted
> lines
> between the questions, and I want two questions on each page.
> \begin{parts}
> \part
> This is the first question. It will be several lines long, so I'm
> writing enough
> filler here to add at least a second line.
> \fillwithdottedlines{\fill}
> \part
> This is the second question. It will also be several lines long, so I need
> filler enough to get to the second line for this example.
> \fillwithdottedlines{\fill}
> 
> \newpage
> \fillwithdottedlines{\fill}
> \newpage
> \part
> This is the 3d question.
> \fillwithdottedlines{\fill}
> \end{parts}
> \end{questions}
> \newpage
> \fillwithdottedlines{\fill}
> \newpage
> \begin{questions}
> \question
> Essay Question. This is a section of essay questions. Students will
> answer only
> one of these questions, so I don't need to leave space between the two
> questions.
> \begin{parts}
> \part
> The first of the essay questions goes here. It will be several lines
> long, so I
> want enough text in the example to provide a line break.
> \part
> The second essay question. It is also several lines long, so I'll add some
> rambling text here for the second line.
> \end{parts}
> \end{questions}
> \fillwithdottedlines{\fill}
> \newpage
> \fillwithdottedlines{\fill}
> \end{document}
> 
> --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---
> 
>