xsim and questions in columns within tasks

Question

I would do with xsim, successor of exsheets, the same I do with it: lists of questions inside a tasks environment.

Is that possible?

Something like this:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{exsheets, tasks}

\makeatletter
\def\sol{\relax}
\newcommand*{\@exoSol}[1]{%
\ES@Line #1 \sol\sol%
}

\ExplSyntaxOn
\cs_set_eq:NN \exsheets_par: \scan_stop:
\ExplSyntaxOff

\SetupExSheets{
  headings=inline-nr,
  counter-format=$\cdot$qu$\cdot$,
  question/no-skip-below = true,
  question/post-hook={},
  solution/post-hook={\hspace{1em}},
  solution/pre-hook={}
  }

\long\def\ES@Line#1\sol#2\sol{%
\begin{question}#1\end{question}%
\long\def\@test{#2}\ifx\@test\empty\else\begin{solution}#2                    
\end{solution}\fi%

}


\NewTasks[
   label={\relax},
   label-width=0em,
   item-indent=0em,
   label-offset=0em,
   item-format={\@exoSol},
   before-skip = 0pt]{series}[?]
\makeatother

\begin{document}

Solve with natural numbers, when possible:
\begin{series}(3)
  ? $1+5$ \sol $6$
  ? $4-2$ \sol $2$
  ? $3-4$ \sol impossible
  ? $8+2$ \sol $10$
  ? $0+0$
  ? $6\times 0$ \sol $0$
\end{series}

Solutions:\par
\printsolutions

\end{document}

Answer 1

Here is a solution using up to date versions of tasks (2020/01/11 v1.1a) and xsim (2020/02/21 v0.17). It needs xsim to be loaded with the no-files option in order to use the environments inside of other macros. It also utilizes \ifblank from the etoolbox package (which is loaded, anyway) for the sake of convenience.

First I slightly change your custom macros (mostly as a matter of taste):

\newcommand*\sol{}
\newcommand*\exsol[1]{\ESLine#1\sol\sol}
\long\def\ESLine#1\sol#2\sol{%
  \begin{exercise}#1\end{exercise}%
  \ifblank{#2}{}{\begin{solution}#2\end{solution}}%
}

Now I define a suitable template for exercises and solutions (note the spaces, they are significant):

\DeclareExerciseEnvironmentTemplate{dotted}
  {\textbf{$\cdot$\GetExerciseProperty{counter}$\cdot$} }
  { }

Then I tell xsim to use the new template and to omit the heading of \printsolutions:

\xsimsetup{
  exercise/template = dotted ,
  solution/template = dotted ,
  print-solutions/headings = false
}

And at last I define the tasks environment with an empty label, the numbering comes from xsim:

\NewTasksEnvironment[
  label =  ,
  label-width = 0em ,
  item-indent = 0em ,
  label-offset = 0em ,
  item-format = \exsol
]{series}[?]

That's it. The document body is the same as in the OP.

The complete code:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[no-files]{xsim}[2020/02/21]
\usepackage{tasks}

\newcommand*\sol{}
\newcommand*\exsol[1]{\ESLine#1\sol\sol}
\long\def\ESLine#1\sol#2\sol{%
  \begin{exercise}#1\end{exercise}%
  \ifblank{#2}{}{\begin{solution}#2\end{solution}}%
}

\DeclareExerciseEnvironmentTemplate{dotted}
  {\textbf{$\cdot$\GetExerciseProperty{counter}$\cdot$} }
  { }

\xsimsetup{
  exercise/template = dotted ,
  solution/template = dotted ,
  print-solutions/headings = false
}

\NewTasksEnvironment[
  label =  ,
  label-width = 0em ,
  item-indent = 0em ,
  label-offset = 0em ,
  item-format = \exsol
]{series}[?]

\begin{document}

Solve with natural numbers, when possible:
\begin{series}(3)
  ? $1+5$ \sol $6$
  ? $4-2$ \sol $2$
  ? $3-4$ \sol impossible
  ? $8+2$ \sol $10$
  ? $0+0$
  ? $6\times 0$ \sol $0$
\end{series}

Solutions:\par
\printsolutions

\end{document}