Flexible
LaTeX-based
Automatic
Making of
Exercise Sheets &
Sessions
FLAMES is a generator for exercise sheets (resp. worksheets)
and for the content required for exercise sessions or
tutorials. FLAMES is particularly suited for exercise
sessions with attestations. During these the students have to
present their homework. An evaluation and grading is done by
instructed tutors.
The usage of FLAMES may be helpful also in similar situations,
where only a subset of the functions of FLAMES is used. The
application is reasonable in situations, when a flexible
generation of exercise sheets and an automatic preparation of
the content of exercise sessions is required.
FLAMES is used via the command line. A Unix-based environment
is required (Linux or Mac OS X for example). Mainly FLAMES
is based on the document markup language "LaTeX" and the build
tool "Make". The goal is to offer an efficient and easy to use
system, which is based on a small number of powerful standard
tools. With these a flexible mechanism for short-term
modifications and rearrangements is guaranteed. Additionally
the automation of recurrent adaptions and adjustments is
ensured.
-
exercises and sample solutions are held in the same document,
generation is done on demand
-
exercises can be moved on different exercise sheets very
easily in one master document
-
automatic update of hyperlinks on exercise sheets
-
output of exercise sheets and sample solutions as PDF,
PostScript (for printing) and HTML
-
a separate list of questions can be hold and integrated for
every exercise sheet and respective for every attestation
-
special handling and storing of source code needed for
exercise sessions in an integrated development environment
(IDE)
-
pattern for the storage of files including naming and
directory convention for every single exercise
-
consider files to be handed out to the students,
needed for the work on the exercises (directory name:
ausgabe)
-
consider files needed for the exercise sessions,
i.e. examples, templates, etc. (directory name:
uebung)
-
consider files belonging to the sample solutions
(directory name: mlsg)
-
preparing the notes for the pre- and postliminary talks on
every exercise of an exercise session
-
preparing the grading schemes for all exercises needed for
the evaluation by the tutors
-
preparing the content needed for the exercise sessions,
i.e. source code and images or diagrams
-
automatic creation of archives containing all files needed
for the exercise sessions
-
automatic creation of archives containing all files needed
to prepare the tutors for the attestations
-
automatic creation of a printable PDF/PS file with
complete all content needed for the attestations
-
simple backup function, creating an archive containing all
content of the exercise sessions, portable and fully
functional also in other environments
-
download and extract current archive (see below)
-
use the command line to change with "cd" to
the directory ".../Aufgaben/"
-
by entering "make" or "make help" an
overview of the available functions is given
-
with the following commands:
$ make b01
$ make ueb01
$ make tut01
... the first exercise sheet and all corresponding content
is generated
-
alternatively the same is reached on a shorter way with the
following commands:
$ make 01
$ make tut01
-
The steps for the generation were divided into these steps
because it was useful in the past: The exercise sheet
("make b01") and the exercise session ("make
ueb01") were often generated separately or in
combination ("make 01"). The archive for the tutors
("make tut01") was rarely generated, mostly
one-time before it was given to the tutors.
-
It would be a good choice to use FLAMES in combination with
a version control system (VCS) like Subversion (SVN) for
example. Besides the benefits a VCS offers for a single user
(version history, central repository to synchronize
different working repositories, etc.) this would be an easy
way to get a multi-user system.
- Bash (incl. find, tar, gzip)
- Make
- LaTeX, incl. pdfLaTeX and Tex4ht
- pdftops, pstops, ps2pdf, a2ps, gs, epstopdf
- dvipng and probably dvips and convert (ImageMagick)
Tested with: Ubuntu Linux 12.04.2 LTS and the included TeX
distribution "TeX Live 2009-15"
