Definition talk:Collation

Unfortunately, this page seems to currently assume that the reader understands the concept being defined. --Dfeuer (talk) 23:44, 6 September 2013 (UTC)


 * This definition can best be conveyed using examples. I should be including some pictures and explicit examples to clarify things. Thanks for pointing out.


 * E.g., we could have $\square\square\square\square\square$, the collation "word of length $5$", with $5$ placeholders. Then $\boxed a \boxed b \boxed b \boxed a \boxed a$ (more usually written $abbaa$, the boxes are there to explicate the substitution for placeholders) is a "word of length $5$" in the alphabet $\{a,b\}$. &mdash; Lord_Farin (talk) 09:32, 7 September 2013 (UTC)


 * Could we include examples like: "A word in natural language is a collation of letters. A number written in Arabic (or even Roman) form is a collation of digits. A sentence is a collation of words. A paragraph is a collation of sentences. A chapter is a collation of paragraphs." And so on. Because ultimately those are the basic idea of which a collation is an abstraction.


 * There are a few basic concepts like this, which need low-level basic-language explanation - "set" is another one which has loads of extra stuff in there which is not actually part of the definition so much as explanatory wording around it. There are probably others. --prime mover (talk) 09:43, 7 September 2013 (UTC)


 * I hope to have made the definition more insightful with the additions. Please do not ask for the collation system that describes Lego :). &mdash; Lord_Farin (talk) 13:05, 7 September 2013 (UTC)