Sstrhsrtj

I generally like how the solution environment behaves in the exam document class, but I have often found it useful to have a brief "answer" before a fully written out solution. I have accomplished this in the past with a simple answer command that did most of what I wanted, but it was far from ideal. Thus, I thought it might be useful to define an answer environment that behaved appropriately.

There are really two problems with what I have currently (in order of importance):

1. The answer begins on a new line after "Solution:" and this looks awful. (I have tried a variety of things involving nobreak and nolinebreak, but I cannot figure out why the answer appears on the right line for the proof environment (why is there no line break here?) but on the wrong one for the solution environment.)


2. I would like to ensure equal vertical spacing between the text above and below the horizontal line following the answer provided within the solution environment (maybe this particular problem belongs in a new question if it's not an easy fix?).

Here is a picture describing the problem and a MWE that follows:

MWE:

documentclass{exam}

printanswers

usepackage{amsthm,amssymb,amsmath}

usepackage{etoolbox}

usepackage{lipsum}



newcommand{HRule}[1][medskipamount]{par

  vspace*{dimexpr-parskip-baselineskip+#1}

  noindentrule{linewidth}{0.2mm}par

  vspace*{dimexpr-parskip-.5baselineskip+#1}}



makeatletter

newenvironment{answer}{par

  pushQED{qed}%

  normalfont topsep6p@@plus6p@relax

  trivlist

  itemignorespaces

}{%

  popQEDendtrivlist@endpefalse

}

makeatother



AtBeginEnvironment{answer}{renewcommandqedsymbol{$blacklozenge$}}

AfterEndEnvironment{answer}{HRule}



makeatletter

newcommand*NoIndentAfterEnv[1]{%

AfterEndEnvironment{#1}{par@afterindentfalse@afterheading}}

makeatother

NoIndentAfterEnv{answer}





begin{document}



begin{proof}

begin{answer}

This is a short answer that currently appears on the ``correct'' line (i.e., no line break when beginning the answer environment immediately after the proof environment).

end{answer}

And here will appear a much longer solution as opposed to just an answer.

end{proof}



begin{solution}

begin{answer}

This is a short answer that currently appears on the ``wrong'' line (i.e., there is a line break when beginning the answer environment immediately after the solution environment).

end{answer}

lipsum[1-2]

end{solution}



end{document}