Directory macros/latex/contrib/ran_toks

The rantoks Package Author: D. P. Story Dated: 2021-06-06

This short package, with minimal requirements, defines macros for randomizing a list of tokens. There are two approaches:

1.  \ranToks{myList}{ {One}{Two}{Three}{Four}{Five} }: Here the token
    list occurs as the argument of the \ranToks command. myList is the
    name of this list. The tokens can be anything that \TeX accepts as
    a macro argument, this excludes \verb, for example.

2.  Another construct writes verbatim to the disk, so the tokens can
    be of arbitrary size, and include \verb and the verbatim
    environment, for example,

    \bRTVToks{myStuff}
    \begin{rtVW}
    The inline answer is \verb!x^3!
    \end{rtVW}
    \begin{rtVW}
    This is my stuff, leave it alone!
    \end{rtVW}
    ...
    \begin{rtVW}
    The verbatim listing is
    \begin{verbatim}
    \bRTVToks{myStuff}
    ... (missing stuff)
    \eRTVToks
    \end{verbatim}
    \end{rtVW}
    \eRTVToks

To actually see the randomized list, use the useRanTok{num} command: For myList, we would write useRanTok{1}, useRanTok{2}, useRanTok{3}, useRanTok{4}, and {useRanTok{5}} to obtain a random listing of the tokens in the myList list.

For users of AeB or eqexam, the latter structure can be used to randomize the order of the questions on a quiz or exam.

What's New (2021-06-06) Added support for nested bRTVToks/eRTVToks command pairs. Demo files: rantoks.tex and nested-matching.tex.

What's New (2021-01-19) A new option, usedbapp, was added to support a DB application. Extensive work was done on the DB application. Added uniqueXDBChoicesOn, which if expanded, tries to choose a random token that has not already been chosen, across versions of a multi-version eqexam document. Changes are discussed in the documentation and in the new examples in the distribution.

What's New (2019-12-28) Defined rtVWHook to insert at the top of the rtVW environment. Also created an alternate package name of ran-toks.

What's new in v1.1: Added the convenience command useTheseDBs to input files for an application to constructing exams (using eqexam) from a series of DB files. Refer to the new demo file mc-db.tex.

Enjoy!

Now, I must get back to my retirement.

dps