[texhax] exam class

[Robin Fairbairns]

> Thanks for the tip on exam class.  I think it will serve my purposes
> in designing a self-report survey instrument for a research project.
>
> [duplicate names]
> 
> Both packages are "called" with the same opening line:  documentclass{exam}
> 
> So here's the rub:  my Kile calls up Hirshorn's package in response to
> that command.  Hirschorn's package doesn't seem to know what to do
> with the \begin{multiplechoice} command, and I get errors.
> 
> Any suggestions on how to specify the Alexander exam package (which I
> think is the same as the examdesign package--it also uses
> \documentclass{exam} declaration, merely adding to the confusion.)
> 
> Or alternatively, how would I remove the Hirschorn exam package from
> my Linux system?

i am very sorry about this: we try to catch duplicate names when we put
things on the archive, but we failed spectacularly here, and people
continue to have problems.

when we realised the problem, we wrote to the author of the second one
and asked him to change the name, and he refused :-(  [i don't recall
which is which, but i suspect the more functional one is the one whose
name we wanted to change.]

we need to take more decisive action; whatever it is, it will cause
yet more inconvenience to users such as you.

in the mean time, i suggest you delete the hirschhorn's package from
your system (there will continue to be trouble so long has you have two
exam.cls on your system).  here's a recipe:

  kpsewhich exam.cls
  # now, as root:
  rm `kpsewhich exam.cls`
  # now move alexander's into place
  cp exam.cls <location shown by kpsewhich above>
  texhash
  # end of root interlude

i'll ensure that whatever action we manage to take gets broadcast to
texhax as well as to the usual suspects (ctan-ann mailing list and hence
newsgroup comp.text.tex)

Robin Fairbairns

For the CTAN team
[copied to the team]