Automate a running counter through a document

Question

The following minimal example demonstrates my situation:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{calculator}
\newcommand{\pts}{0}

\begin{document}

\ADD{\pts}{3}{\pts}\pts

\ADD{\pts}{3}{\pts}\pts

\ADD{\pts}{3}{\pts}\pts

\begin{enumerate}
    \item \ADD{\pts}{3}{\pts}\pts
    \item \ADD{\pts}{3}{\pts}\pts
\end{enumerate}

\pts

\end{document}

Ideally I would like to have the counter \pts to increase through and after the application of the enumeration environment (or any environment in fact). The package document does state:

But these commands act as declarations, so that its scope is local in environments and groups.

Is there a way around this? Is there a way to keep a counter running through a document, that one can add (or other arithmetic operations as needs be, which the calculator package does do wonderfully).

Answer 1

You need to make \pts global before leave the enumerate environment. To do this, use the \GLOBALCOPY command: \GLOBALCOPY{\pts}{\pts}:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{calculator}
\newcommand{\pts}{0}

\begin{document}

\ADD{\pts}{3}{\pts}\pts

\ADD{\pts}{3}{\pts}\pts

\ADD{\pts}{3}{\pts}\pts

\begin{enumerate}
   \item \ADD{\pts}{3}{\pts}\pts
   \item \ADD{\pts}{3}{\pts}\pts
   \GLOBALCOPY{\pts}{\pts}             %%%% Globalize \pts !!!
\end{enumerate}

\pts

\end{document}

Answer 2

You can use a counter rather than a command:

\documentclass{article}
\newcounter{pts}

\begin{document}

\addtocounter{pts}{3}\thepts

\addtocounter{pts}{3}\thepts

\addtocounter{pts}{3}\thepts

\begin{enumerate}
    \item \addtocounter{pts}{3}\thepts
    \item \addtocounter{pts}{3}\thepts
\end{enumerate}

\thepts

\end{document}