Help talk:Editing/House Style

Let vs. Suppose
I find it strange to use "let" to make assumptions about objects that are already defined. I thought "let" is used to introduce objects, not to impose conditions on them. Example:

Let $f$ be continuously differentiable.

Let $f'$ be monotonic.

It's strange, unnatural; it's like obliging $f'$ to be monotonic, as if $f$ is existent an nonexistent at the same time. If even here "let" is preferred over "suppose", then is there any example where "suppose" is used? I feel like there's a tendency to replace every instance of "suppose" by "let", in theorem statements and definitions. --barto (talk) 15:59, 28 January 2017 (EST)


 * "Suppose" is used on when the existence of the object under discussion is under question. "Suppose that there exists a subset $S$ of $T$ such that $|T| > |S|$", for example, and the object of the exercise is to prove or disprove that existence.


 * "Let" is consistently used to specify and sub-specify and sub-sub-specify the object that is being defined as being what it is your defining. --prime mover (talk) 16:05, 28 January 2017 (EST)


 * Seems like, with that logic, they're interchangeable:


 * "Suppose that there exists a subset $S$ of $T$ such that $|T| > |S|$" vs.
 * "Let there exist a subset $S$ of $T$ such that $|T| > |S|$" or
 * "Let there be a subset $S$ of $T$ such that $|T| > |S|$" or
 * "Let $S$ be a subset of $T$ such that $|T| > |S|$"


 * IMO, this is also specifying/making assumptions or whatever one may call it. But okay, if you don't want to relax this rule, there's no use that I keep asking for it. --barto (talk) 16:17, 28 January 2017 (EST)


 * But there is no subset $S$ of $T$ such that $|T| > |S|$, and this is the important thing which is to be proved in the example above. Hence the "suppose" which is "hypothetically, imagine the situation where ..." whereas "Let $f$ be monotonic" implies "We are further going to specify that $f$ is monotonic" and so on. Each invocation of "Let" is a further restriction on the conditions of the object being specified.


 * This is on a par with the LET command in BASIC, where LET A = B is used to mean: It is to be specified that the variable A is to be assigned the value held in the variable B, and is a command for the computer to do something.


 * It makes it easier to understand exactly where the definition begins, and where the definition ends. --prime mover (talk) 16:26, 28 January 2017 (EST)

Tidy
Attempts to determine what tidy means unearths 317 pages in 'Category:Tidy', all of which needed to be tidied. I ask for some positive response to my dilemma, which might include examples of house edits over the past year which corrected such pages to meet 'house style'. Search engines provide useless answers like this:


 *  Tidy then cleans up the broken HTML differently from RemexHTML. Editors may have to work around this MediaWiki bug. Tidy rearranges the whitespace in the HTML, mostly in a misguided attempt at pretty-printing. 

Puzzled for weeks--Gbgustafson (talk) 04:46, 2 December 2019 (EST)


 * Simply, it just means the page needs to be tidied and/or brought up to house style standard.


 * You won't get anything by using a search engine. Those are likely to return hits which are nothing to do with . --prime mover (talk) 11:26, 2 December 2019 (EST)

Proven results category
This page is in the "proven results" category. Why?--Lore.mazza51 (talk) 19:28, 1 March 2020 (EST)


 * Well noticed. Fixed. --prime mover (talk) 01:15, 2 March 2020 (EST)