[texhax] How to structure conditionals?

[Karl Berry]

Hi Chris,

    \newcommand{\question}[3]{
        \samepage{}
        \thequestionnum) #1 #2
        \addtocounter{questionnum}{1}
    }

I'm not sure from your description how you intend \question to be
called.  Could you give an example?

        But I can't for the life of me figure out how to put in a 
    conditional, either checking a defined string at the beginning

I don't know how to use LaTeX conditionals, but the primitives \if and
\ifx can check these things, or maybe \ifcase would be better.  For
example, you gave this example:

     tells TeX "when you're in the first question, use the second question
    conclusion; when you're in the second question, use the second question
    conclusion; when you're in the third question, use the first question
    conclusion".

And here is a sketch of some code, assuming some other counter like
\conclusion to tell you which conclusion to use.

\ifcase\questionnum
  % q0, impossible
 \or \conclusion=2 % q1
 \or \conclusion=2 % q2
 \or \conclusion=1 % q3
\fi

Hope this helps,
Karl