dvddddddvd / pbuilder

Latex package for managing problem sets

Usage

Put pbuilder.sty in your LaTeX/Overleaf folder, then in the preamble add \usepackage{pbuilder}.

Basic Usage

... % other preamble
\usepackage{pbuilder}

\begin{document}

... % intro

% Problem 1
\problem{...}
\solution{...}

% Problem 2
\problem{...}
\solution{...}

... % more problems

\subsection*{Problems}
\buildproblems

\subsection*{Solutions}
\buildsolutions

More examples

Hints section

... 
% Problem 1
\problem{...}
\solution{...}

% Problem 2
\problem{...}
\solution{...}
\hint{...} % not every problem needs to have a hint!

% Problem 3
\problem{...}
\solution{...}

...

\subsection*{Hints}
\buildhints

Custom formats (e.g. if you want to have the solutions repeat the problem and the solutions)

...
% in preamble
\renewcommand\solutionitemformat{
    \textbf{Problem \getproblemnumber.} \getproblem
    
    \textit{Solution.} \getsolution

    }{}
    
}
\renewcommand\solutionoverallformat[1]{
  #1  
}

...

\subsection*{Solutions}
\buildsolutions         % same usage!

New fields - e.g. if you wanted to add sources for some of the problems.

...
% in preamble
\newfield{problemsource}


% and maybe I want to incorporate it into the solutions:

\renewcommand\solutionitemformat{
    \ifcsdef{getsolution}{
        \textbf{Problem \getproblemnumber.} \ifcsdef{getproblemsource}{(\getproblemsource)}{} \getproblem
    
        \textit{Solution.} \getsolution

    }{}
    
}
...

Multiple sections

...         % preamble

\section{Section A}

% Problem A1
\problem{...}
\solution{...}

% Problem A2
\problem{...}
\solution{...}
\hints{...}

...

\subsection*{Problems}
\buildproblems

\saveandreset{sectionA} % resets the problem counter and stores everything so far

\newpage
\section{Section B}

% Problem B1
\problem{...}
\solution{...}

...

\subsection*{Problems}
\buildproblems

\saveandreset{sectionB}

\newpage
\section*{Hints}
\buildallhints

\newpage
\section*{Solutions}
% maybe we only have solutions for Section A...

\load{sectionA}
\buildsolutions

Examples

% in preamble

% format of the examples
\newcommand\exampleitemformat{
    \ifcsdef{getproblemsource}{\begin{example}[\getproblemsource]}{\begin{example}}%
        \getproblem
    \end{example}
    
    \ifcsdef{getsolution}{\textit{Solution.} \getsolution}{}
}

\newcommand\exampleitemoverall[1]{
    #1
}

% some commands to reload the "Examples" section each time
\saveandreset{Examples} % init

\newcommand\loadexample{%
    \load{Examples}%
}
\newcommand\showexample{
    \showonecustom{\exampleitemformat}{\exampleitemoverall}
    \saveandreset{Examples}
}

...

% an example in text
\loadexample
\problem{...}
\solution{...}
\showexample

% you might want this, for instance, if you want to let your students try all the examples ahead of the session
\section*{All examples used} 
\loadexample
\buildproblems

Some documentation

Data organization

The rough org structure of data is:

sections    problems    fields

Section A - Problem 1 - problem
          |           | solution
          |           | (hint?)
          - Problem 2 - problem
          |           | solution
          |           | (hint?)
Section B - Problem 1 - problem
          |           | solution
          |           | (hint?)
          - Problem 2 - problem
          |           | solution
          |           | (hint?)     

Fields

fields are things like problem(s), solution(s) and hint(s), but you can also define your own in the preamble using

\newfield{<field>}

This makes the command \<field>.

The package ships with the following by default:

%% standard template
\newfield[key]{problem}
\newfield{solution}
\newfield{hint}

The [key] option just indicates that we increase the counter whenever we see a new \problem. This means that the other fields don't have to be in order, as long as it is between the current \problem and the next \problem.

% this works
\problem{...}
\solution{...}
\hint{...}

% this also works
\problem{...}
\hint{...}
\solution{...}

Statuses

status(es) are basically field(s) but boolean.

% e.g. if we want to track which problems were used

% preamble
\newstatus{used}

% a problem
\problem{...}
\used

"Compilation"

Each <field> comes with a \build<field>s command. This compiles all instances of the field given so far "in memory".

\build<field>s can be customized by changing \<field>itemformat and \<field>overallformat:

% output of \build<field>s
\<field>overallformat{
    \<field>itemformat
    \<field>itemformat
    ...
    \<field>itemformat
}

The defaults are

\newcommand\fieldoverallformat[#1]{
    \begin{enumerate}
        #1
    \end{enumerate}
}

\newcommand\fielditemformat[#1]{
    \item[\getproblemnumber.] \get<field>
}

Ok, this is a slight simplification.

Custom item formats

In \<field>itemformat, you are allowed to use any field available via \get<field>. In addition, you can refer to the problem number (within the section) by \getproblemnumber.

Useful patterns:

• If you want to check e.g. if there's a solution, you can do

\ifcsdef{getsolution}{%
    % if there is a solution
}{%
    % if there isn't a solution
}

The default \<field>itemformat actually skips over problems whose <field> is blank.

Sections

One can store and wipe the memory using \saveandreset{<section-name>}. This is typically happens after you compile the problems.

To recover a previously stored section, you can do \load{<section-name>}.

Compiling across sections

TODO

Other commands

e.g. \showonecustom{...}{...}

TODOs:

• finish basic docs
• more examples
  • statuses
  • problem bank