Thanks, the framed bit is fine, except that the base of the frame is aligned with the exercise number "(a)", whereas I'd like the top line of the equations aligned with the (a)...

I'll keep fiddling.  This is one of those occasions which makes the conversion from LaTeX to ConTeXt tricky for a beginner!

Thanks again,
Alasdair

On Sat, May 14, 2011 at 11:23 AM, Aditya Mahajan <adityam@umich.edu> wrote:
On Sat, 14 May 2011, Alasdair McAndrew wrote:

Hello,

I'm trying to typeset some linear algebra exercises for my students; the
exercises will be within a table, and each second element will be a system
of linear equations.  This sort of thing:

\starttable[|l|M|l|M|]
\NC (a) \NC %

\startmathalignment[n=7,align={right,middle,right,middle,right,middle,right}]
    \NC 3x\NC +\NC 6y\NC -\NC 2z\NC =\NC -13\NR
    \NC -6x\NC -\NC 9y\NC +\NC 5z\NC =\NC 22\NR
    \NC 3x\NC +\NC 3y\NC -\NC 5z\NC =\NC -13\NR
  \stopmathalignment
\NC (b) \NC %

\startmathalignment[n=7,align={right,middle,right,middle,right,middle,right}]
\NC x\NC +\NC 3y\NC +\NC 3z\NC =\NC -4\NR
\NC x\NC +\NC 4y\NC +\NC 5z\NC =\NC -5\NR
\NC 2x\NC +\NC 4y\NC +\NC 3z\NC =\NC -5\NR
\stopmathalignment
\NC\AR
\stoptable

But this doesn't work.  There seems to be a problem with the mathalignment
environment within the table.  What do I need enclose these in so that they
will be treated as displayed equations within the table environment?

(Untested): \framed[align=normal,width=fit]{\startformula \startmathalignment ... \stopmathalignment \stopformula}

math alignment is a display math environment, and must be inside a \startformula ... \stopformula.

Two comments:

1. You know about \definemathalignment, right?
2. I think that this effect can be obtained more easily using

\startitemize[two,columns,a]
 \item ...
 \item ..
\stopitemize

but you might need to insert a negative \vskip (or \blank) to get matrix to align with the item symbol.

Aditya
___________________________________________________________________________________
If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki!

maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context
webpage  : http://www.pragma-ade.nl / http://tex.aanhet.net
archive  : http://foundry.supelec.fr/projects/contextrev/
wiki     : http://contextgarden.net
___________________________________________________________________________________



--
Blog: http://amca01.wordpress.com
Web:  http://bit.ly/Alasdair
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/alasdair.mcandrew