--- loncom/html/adm/help/tex/Problem_LON-CAPA_Functions.tex	2013/07/10 16:00:52	1.24
+++ loncom/html/adm/help/tex/Problem_LON-CAPA_Functions.tex	2013/08/18 01:40:23	1.25
@@ -240,3 +240,13 @@ undef @name  & To destroy the contents o
  NOTE: \$ne is rounded using int() and the result must be positive. \$p must be between 0 and 1 exclusive.  & Generate an array of \$item\_cnt outcomes generated from negative binomial distribution with \$ne events and the probabilty of an event in each trial is \$p.  \\
 \hline
 \end{longtable}
+
+The \&EXT() \index{\&EXT}external function is extremely powerful to access parameters 
+and submission values and can be
+used within scripts and the grading spreadsheet.
+Some examples can be found by browsing in the repository to /res/msu/albertel/test/ext\_examples.html.
+The \&EXT() function can be used to access many of the same parameters as some of the other functions
+summarized in the table above, such as \&firstname() which is equivalent to \&EXT(`environment.firstname'),
+and \&parameter\_setting(\$name,\$partid) is equivalent to \&EXT(`resource.'.\$partid.`.'.\$name)
+and the more specialized functions are preferred for clarity of the code.
+