From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Marcin Borkowski Subject: Extending the Org syntax by a custom exporter - how to do it? Date: Sat, 15 Mar 2014 11:10:59 +0100 Message-ID: <20140315111059.00d3b8e0@aga-netbook> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Return-path: Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:54911) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1WOlYa-0005zJ-6S for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Sat, 15 Mar 2014 06:11:13 -0400 Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1WOlYU-0000yB-LM for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Sat, 15 Mar 2014 06:11:08 -0400 Received: from msg.wmi.amu.edu.pl ([2001:808:114:2::50]:49168) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1WOlYU-0000y2-E0 for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Sat, 15 Mar 2014 06:11:02 -0400 Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by msg.wmi.amu.edu.pl (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1097A4206B for ; Sat, 15 Mar 2014 11:11:01 +0100 (CET) Received: from msg.wmi.amu.edu.pl ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (msg.wmi.amu.edu.pl [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP id R4cp-XAW-ska for ; Sat, 15 Mar 2014 11:11:00 +0100 (CET) Received: from aga-netbook (99-234.echostar.pl [213.156.99.234]) by msg.wmi.amu.edu.pl (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id E377642066 for ; Sat, 15 Mar 2014 11:11:00 +0100 (CET) List-Id: "General discussions about Org-mode." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-orgmode-bounces+geo-emacs-orgmode=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sender: emacs-orgmode-bounces+geo-emacs-orgmode=m.gmane.org@gnu.org To: Org-mode mailing list Hi list, I'd like to extend the LaTeX exporter to be able to prepare tests with Org-mode. Four basic kinds of tests I'm thinking about are: single choice test, multiple choice test, cloze test and an "open" question (where the expected answer is, say, at most 5 lines of text). It would enable the user to typeset both the test for students and an answer sheet for the teacher to facilitate grading. (If - and when - I succeed in doing this, next logical step is preparing HTML/Javascript tests from the same Org-mode source.) I have a few questions, though. 1. Is it possible to employ syntax like ____{noon|midday} to denote a cloze with two possible answers? It might get translated to LaTeX as e.g. \cloze{{noon},{midday}} or similar, and a LaTeX package would take care to typeset this correctly. Is there any similar thing (i.e., an exporter built on some existing one) so that I can look at an example of code doing such thing? 2. What would you suggest as the input format on the Org side of things? My suggestion for the cloze syntax is shown above (let us assume that at least two or three underscores are needed to distinguish this from subscript, and some form of escaping the pipe symbol and braces might be necessary. Alternatively, it might be configurable to use e.g. ____[noon/midday] (or other characters). What about SCTs/MCTs? My idea would be to employ plain lists with checkboxes - they seem to be pretty useless outside Org-mode anyway, and I imagine that it could be something like this: #+ - [ ] wrong answer - [X] good answer - [X] another good answer - [ ] a completely stupid answer As for "open" questions, I have no good idea. Maybe something like #+LINES: 5 but what about example answers (for the teacher grading the test)? Maybe it would be better to say: #+BEGIN_ANSWER (Here goes the right answer.) #+END_ANSWER, but is it possible to pass a parameter (number of lines) to #+BEGIN_ANSWER? 3. Bonus question: would there be any demand (apart from myself) for such an exporter? What do you think? -- Marcin Borkowski http://octd.wmi.amu.edu.pl/en/Marcin_Borkowski Adam Mickiewicz University