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Changelog

Source: NEWS.md

gradethis (development version)

  • New function: grade_this(expr). Evaluates the expression and returns the first grade that is called or error that is thrown.
  • New function: grade_this_code(correct, incorrect). Makes a grade from comparing the user code against the solution code. This is a simplified version of grade_code().
  • New function: code_feedback(). Compares the user code against the solution code.
  • Checking exercise code with blanks, e.g. ____, now returns clear feedback that students should replace the ____ with code. (#153)
  • The exercise.parse.error global option now accepts a function with one argument. The function is given the gradethis check environment with an additional .error object containing the parse error condition. (#153)
  • Improved code feedback for function definitions will detect mistakes in function arguments (#178)
  • gradethis now accepts markdown or an htmltools tags or a tagList() object for feedback messages. Markdown processing is handled via commonmark. Internally, all code feedback messages now use markdown. (#189)
  • pass_if_equal() now compares the submitted .result to the exercise .solution by default (#203).
  • New function: debug_this() returns information about the various objects available for use by grading code. It is designed for tutorial authors to use during development and can be used in *-check chunks or inside grade_this() grading code and the feedback is shown in the tutorial when clicking on Submit Answer. See ?debug_this for more information. (#203)
  • graded() and its pass/fail helper functions now accept type and location parameters that specify how the feedback is displayed (see learnr Custom Checking for more details about these options).
  • Calling gradethis_setup() is no longer required if you want to use the default gradethis setup. Simply call library(gradethis). You can use gradethis_setup() to adjust the default values of any options. (#210)
  • New function: give_code_feedback(). When applied to a grade_this() or grade_result() grading function, code feedback is added to the messages of any fail() grades. (#219)
  • All failing graded() helper functions, like fail() etc, now take a hint argument that when TRUE adds a code feedback hint to the custom feedback message. The default value of this argument can be set via gradethis_setup(). (#216)
  • Passing and failing graded() helper functions gain a praise or encourage argument (respectively) to prepend a random praising phrase when passing or append a random encouraging phrase when failing. The default values of these arguments can be set via gradethis_setup(). (#227)
  • New functions: give_praise() and give_encouragement(). Follow the same pattern as give_code_feedback() to automatically add praise or encouragement to pass() or fail() grades, respectively. (#227)
  • New function: fail_if_code_feedback(). Returns an incorrect grade when there are differences between the user code and solution code (if it exists). (#228)
  • We now use placeholder sentinel objects as function argument defaults to signal that a function will find the object in the grade_this() check environment. The help page ?grade_this-objects describes these objects and documents their purpose, which you can also find by calling one of the placeholders, e.g. .result. (#232)
  • Added gradethis_error_checker(), a more robust checking function for general use when the student’s submission should not throw an error. (#234)
  • grade_this_code() gains an action argument, allowing authors to choose if grade_this_code() should only "pass" or "fail" the user’s submission. By default, grade_this_code() uses action = "both" to maintain current behavior. (#276)
  • When combined with learnr version 0.10.1.9017 or later, gradethis’ exercise checking function will not require that grading code absolutely return feedback unless exercise checking is at the "check" stage. (#276)
  • You may now call return() in grade_this() grading code to exit grading early. This is allowed in code and error checking code, but will result in an “internal error” when used in the -check chunk grading code (#284).
  • gradethis now includes low-level support for multiple solutions. Authors can add multiple solutions in the -solution chunk, separated by code section headers, e.g. # ----. (note only trailing dashes, ----, are supported). These additional solutions are made available in the .solution_code_all object in grade_this() grading code and are named with the code section name if one is provided, e.g. # first ----. When multiple solutions are provided using the code section comments, .solution and .solution_code will default to the last solution. (#286)
  • grade_this_code() and fail_if_code_feedback() now return informative feedback with a neutral grade when no code is submitted and when not previously caught by learnr (#288).
  • gradethis can now be used to grade non-R code. If learnr can evaluate the non-R code and return the result of the submitted code as an R object, then gradethis can be used to grade the submission result. Grading code is still written in R and code feedback tool designed for R will not work as expected (#290).
  • pass_if_equal() and fail_if_equal() gain a tolerance argument which is passed to waldo::compare(). This defaults to the same default value as all.equal() to avoid floating point errors when comparing numeric values (#295).
  • gradethis now includes support for multiple solutions with different results. The solutions are made available in the .solution_all object in grade_this() grading code. pass_if_equal() gains support for multiple solutions as its y argument. If .solution_all is used as the y argument of pass_if_equal(), it will return a passing grade if x matches any of the multiple solutions (#296).

Breaking changes

  • Deprecated grade_feedback()
  • graded() now returns and signals a condition with class "gradethis_graded" instead of returning an object with class "grader_graded"
  • grade_code(), grade_result(), and grade_result_strict() now return a function that accepts checking arguments to be supplied by grade_learnr()
  • grade_code() will now throw an error (rather than returning NULL) if no solution code is provided
  • evaluate_condition() now accepts last_value and env rather than grader_args and learnr_args
  • condition()s now have a class of "gradethis_condition"
  • gradethis now uses learnr for random_praise() and random_encouragement(). random_encourage() has been soft-deprecated (#183).
  • The gradethis.glue_pipe option is now called gradethis.pipe_warning as it sets the default value of the pipe_warning() function. pipe_warning() can be included in the glue strings of other messages, such as those set by gradethis.code.incorrect (#193).
  • The glue_pipe argument of glue_code() is now deprecated (#193).
  • The “Insert Exercise …” RStudio Addins were removed from gradethis (#196).
  • The names of several global options were changed in #210. This will only affect users who were setting the options directly rather than using gradethis_setup(). The name changes are:
    • gradethis.code.partial_matching is now gradethis.allow_partial_matching
    • gradethis.code.feedback is now gradethis.maybe_code_feedback
    • gradethis.code.correct is now gradethis.code_correct
    • gradethis.code.incorrect is now gradethis.code_incorrect
    • gradethis_glue_correct is now gradethis.glue_correct
    • gradethis_glue_incorrect is now gradethis.glue_incorrect
    • gradethis_glue_correct_test is now gradethis.glue_correct_test
    • gradethis_glue_incorrect_test is now gradethis.glue_incorrect_test
  • grade_learnr() is now called gradethis_exercise_checker(). grade_learnr() will continue to work but will issue a deprecation warning (#204).
  • gradethis_setup() now uses a new argument order that favors the gradethis-specific options (#212).
  • The space_before and space_after arguments of maybe_code_feedback() have been deprecated in favor of more flexible arguments before and after that accept arbitrary strings to add before or after the message. (#219)
  • The x argument of pass_if() and fail_if() has been renamed cond and both functions now work inside grade_this(), although the function and formula versions are not supported there. (#216)
  • grade_this() no longer automatically converts errors to fail() grades, instead authors need to wrap unit-test-style code in fail_if_error() to convert them to grades. This helps to better differentiate between unexpected errors resulting from the author’s grading code and portions of the grading code where errors are expected and indicative of a problem with the user’s code. (#254)
  • Errors in the grading code are now returned as neutral grades rather than failing grades. The feedback message and type can be changed with two new arguments to gradethis_setup(): grading_problem.message and grading_problem.type (#256).

Bug fixes

  • Added a NEWS.md file to track changes to the package.