[texhax] It's good to exercise

[James Smith]

Hi,

I think the answer is to typeset the exercises in the same manner as the
definitions and theorems and leave them in place. I can then put the
answers at the end of each chapter, to save the reader too much page
turning, possibly.

I may try to adapt the exercises package, I've had a look at the style
file, my first attempt at this kind of thing. Probably I'll end up
trying something on my own, though, I think.

Regards,

James

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Torsten Wagner [mailto:torsten.wagner at fh-aachen.de] 
> Sent: 13 June 2007 14:45
> To: James Smith
> Cc: texhax at tug.org
> Subject: Re: [texhax] It's good to exercise
> 
> 
> Hi James,
> 
> interesting question and I guess you will not find a definitive 
> solution. First of all I believe, that it strongly depends on your 
> audience.
> 
> Personally, I like to have exercises or better an example embedded 
> within the text. This helps me to directly follow what was 
> written just 
> a few lines above on a practical example. Others may like to 
> read first 
> the complete chapter and sit down and try to follow the exercises 
> afterwards.
> 
> I guess it also highly depends on the topic of your book. If 
> the theory 
> is rather complex I guess I like to get an example within the 
> description to make the theory clearly understandable for me by 
> following the inline-exercise. Other may don't like to be 
> disturbed by 
> exercises since they first like to get an overview before 
> they start to 
> play around with it.
> 
> However, you might combine both methods, just add very short 
> and rather 
> simple exercises which helps to understand the theory behind 
> it within 
> the text and add additional exercise at the end of the chapter.
> 
> Anyhow, I prefer a clear separation between text and example. 
> Many new 
> books follow this rule by adding a horizontal line before and after a 
> exercise, adding a kind of pictogram beside the exercise, or 
> drawing a 
> box around the exercise. This help readers of both groups to 
> find there 
> reading style.
> 
> There might be different point of views for engineering, programming, 
> maths, physics etc. topics. I like more the engineering / programming 
> point-of-view. I really think it hardly depends on the topic 
> and on the 
> audience.
> 
> Just my two cents...
> 
> Torsten
> 
> James Smith schrieb:
> > Hi all,
> > 
> > I'm writing chapters of my book now that are thick with 
> exercises. I 
> > want to place them directly where they are relevant but they don't 
> > look right. A glance at my maths books suggests this is 
> never really 
> > done, although I'm sure I've come across this approach in 
> programming 
> > books before, especially the lighter ones, which 
> unfortunately mine is 
> > not. I'm going to rewrite the first chapter that uses 
> exercises now, 
> > and place the exercises at the end of the chapter, and see how it 
> > reads. I think this goes somewhat against the flow, but it 
> seems the 
> > norm.
> > 
> > Does anyone have any strong opinions on this one way or the 
> other? If 
> > leaving exercises in situ is okay, I think I need to find a way of 
> > numbering them that does not seem to clash with the definitions and 
> > later on, the theorems. I could find a way to number the 
> exercies with 
> > the same schema used for these but I don't know how to do 
> this and I'm 
> > as yet undecided on the numbering scheme for definitions, 
> theorems and 
> > the like anyway. The default numbering scheme seems fine 
> for papers, 
> > but overly elaborate for a book.
> > 
> > Any opinions on this would be greatly appreciated.
> > 
> > Kind regards,
> > 
> > James
> > 
> > 
> > No virus found in this outgoing message.
> > Checked by AVG Free Edition.
> > Version: 7.5.472 / Virus Database: 269.8.15/847 - Release Date:
> > 12/06/2007 21:42
> >  
> > 
> > _______________________________________________
> > TeX FAQ: http://www.tex.ac.uk/faq
> > Mailing list archives: http://tug.org/pipermail/texhax/
> > More links: http://tug.org/begin.html
> > 
> > Automated subscription management: 
> > http://tug.org/mailman/listinfo/texhax
> > Human mailing list managers: postmaster at tug.org
> > 
> 
> 
> 
> No virus found in this incoming message.
> Checked by AVG Free Edition. 
> Version: 7.5.472 / Virus Database: 269.8.15/847 - Release 
> Date: 12/06/2007 21:42
>  
> 

No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition. 
Version: 7.5.472 / Virus Database: 269.8.15/847 - Release Date:
12/06/2007 21:42