Help:Page Editing



This reference intends to describe the general structure the various sections most used on are to adhere to. While this naturally intersects with house style at some points, an attempt is made to separate the global editing instructions and section-specific instructions.

This reference provides the general outline on creating pages and instructions for specific sections; for the rest, see Help:House Style. Furthermore, this page does not dwell on details pertaining to the MediaWiki architecture; the reference for such things is Help:Wiki Editing.

Creating a Page
In general, pay attention to the fact that page names are case sensitive.

Pages can be created in several different ways. Before creating a page, please put some effort in ensuring that the anticipated content is not already up somewhere else on. This does also apply when following a red link; after all, the page in question may simply have a (slightly) different name.

By Searching
First, search for the page name which you would like to create. If this page has not already been created then you will see something that looks like this: There is no page titled "Proof Name". You can create this page. Clicking on create this page will open the page editing window.

Direct URL
If you know for sure that the proof is not on the site, then simply type that name into the URL. For example, if you wanted to prove the Riemann Hypothesis, you would type:

http://www.proofwiki.org/wiki/Riemann Hypothesis

If this page does not exist then, you will get a single line saying:

There is currently no text in this page, you can search for this page title in other pages or edit this page.

Clicking edit this page will open the editing page where you can edit the page.

Page Naming
For all types of pages, major words in the title of the page should be capitalized. For example: Subring Generated by Unity of Ring with Unity. It is also generally better not to start a page name with "A" or "The", as this makes it significantly harder to find pages alphabetically in their categories. For example: Pythagorean Theorem, not The Pythagorean Theorem.

So as to promote consistency, be informed that in particular, the words 'iff', 'implies', and 'under' are not considered to be "major", and so are ought to be used in their lowercase form when naming a page.

Naming Proofs
It is not necessary to begin the name with "Proof of ...", and this should be avoided. Since is a collection of proofs, it is assumed that each page is going to be a proof of something. This also makes searching for articles much easier.

If the name of a page contains mathematical statements, the following formatting practices should be adhered to:

Eg: (1+2)x3. Eg: 1 = 3/3 != 3/4.
 * Put no spaces between numbers/elements that are added, subtracted, divided, or multiplied together.
 * Do, however, put spaces between elements that are put into equality or inequality with one another, and please use != to signify inequality.

Naming Other Pages
When you would like to create a page for a definition, all you have to do different from naming a proof is to add  in front of the name. So for example if you wanted to create a page for the definition of calculus you would name the page: Definition:Calculus

Also, after you create the page, be sure to add the definition to the appropriate "Definitions" categories (see Category:Definitions).

The same method that is used for Definitions is also used to name and categorize axiom and symbols pages. Simply substitute  or   for   in the page name and, mutatis mutandis, in the category name.

Disallowed Characters
The following characters should not be used in page names:
 * 1) < > [ ] | { } * & $ @

Disambiguation
The technique of disambiguation serves to resolve conflicts arising from multiple concepts or results having the same name.

It is generally to be used only if the concepts are unrelated; for theorems, disambiguation is always required.

To disambiguate a page, first ensure that the page (if it exists) previously on the place the disambiguation will be is given an appropriate new title.

Take care to update any links to the page (which can be viewed using the "What links here" option in the menu, under Toolbox) to the new page before installing the disambiguation. If this is an involved and long-winded task, an appropriate invocation of Template:WIP may be added to the disambiguation page to signify the task is still unfinished.

When this is all taken care of, replace the content of the page with:


 * Disambiguated Page 1
 * Disambiguated Page 2
 * Etc.

It is understood that when the disambiguation resides in the  namespace, it is to be placed in Category:Definitions. Disambiguations of theorems needn't be added to a category.

Each entry may feature a short line describing the particular page it links to, but this isn't required.

When the disambiguation is finished, it is a good idea to put an instance of the About template at the top of every page it disambiguates.

Instructions on how to use this template can be found by following the link above.

Multiple Names
Some mathematical concepts have several names, according to the sources you consult. Which of these names is used in is largely a matter of happenstance.

However, if one of the names of a concept is for a particular mathematician, that name is to be used in preference.

An example of this is Definition:Chebyshev Distance, which is otherwise known as the Definition:Maximum Metric or the Definition:Chessboard Metric.

Writing Pages
Of course the most important part is to fill pages with actual content. On all pages (except for talk and user pages), the House Style applies.

Generally, pages follow this format:

Theorem
State the theorem here.

Proof
State the proof here.

Also see

 * List of (internal) links to closely related material.

Definitions and Theorems
These are in practice split into two parts (which is made visual by extra blank lines separating them).

Namely, first there is a series of lines, typically starting with "Let", introducing all names and concepts needed for stating the actual definition or theorem.

Then, separated by two blank lines, the definition or theorem itself is stated. Thus, we obtain the following structure (analogous for Theorems):

Definition
Let ... ... Let ...

Then what is to be defined is defined as ...

The concept that is to be defined is to be displayed in bold (i.e., with three apostrophes,, on either side) throughout the page to make it stand out.

Proofs
Besides adhering to house style, it is a good idea to separate different stages of the proof by subsections or whitespace. Other than that, rigour is the only real prerequisite for proofs.

If you would like other contributors to check your proof, please use the proofread template.

Also known as
Use this section when a concept or result is referred to in multiple ways; this is most commonly used for definitions.

All names should appear in bold. Should an alternative name coincide with the name of something else, it is good to draw the reader's attention to this by including a link and a comment.

Also defined as
Use this section when a single name is used in the literature for multiple definitions. Typically, it is to be used mainly when these definitions are in the same field of mathematics. In other cases, a disambiguation is usually more appropriate. See Help:Disambiguation for instructions on that.

It is advisable to create a synthesis of this and the "Also known as" section. That is, to place "Also known as" sections on pages that are referred to in this section.

Also see
The "Also see" section is intended to contain references to closely related concepts and/or results. These are entered as a bulleted list:

Also see

 * Check This Out 1
 * Check This Out 2
 * Etc.

It is understood that definitions should be referenced in this section directly, without providing a reader view. This is to make it easy to see which entries are definitions and which are proofs.

Thus:


 * Definition:Increasing Sequence of Sets

is a correct entry.

In addition to the above, when a definition has an associated category, this category is to be referenced as well.

For example, Definition:Set Union refers to Category:Union. This is accomplished by the LinkToCategory template, entered as:

More documentation for this template can be found on its page: Template:LinkToCategory.

Source of Name
This section is exclusively created by the namedfor template.

It is entered as:

where  is actually the name of the mathematician's subcategory of Category:Named Theorems -- multiple notable mathematicians with identical surnames exist.

If some page is named for multiple mathematicians (e.g. Cayley-Hamilton Theorem) they should all be listed, via:

Historical Note
This section is intended as a relatively free-form section in which any interesting information about the concept can be elaborated on.

If there is already a "Source of Name" section, then if what you want to say consists of a sentence or two, it may be better just to add it to directly after your invocation of the namedfor template. See Fermat's Little Theorem for a simple example. On the other hand, see Fermat's Christmas Theorem for an example of where the author has considered it appropriate to create a separate section.

If you have a great deal to say about the subject in question, then it is worth considering whether to write it as a separate transcluded page.

Indeed, if you have a strong interest and expertise in the history of mathematics and wish to impart that knowledge on this website, then it may be a worthwhile future task setting up a properly structured category for the history of mathematics, into which we may find it worthwhile to migrate, for example, our Mathematicians space into.

This is one area of whose evolution is in progress.

Linguistic Note
If a term being defined is not a common word in natural language, then it may be appropriate to give an indication of various linguistic characteristics of that word.

Examples of this are:


 * 1) Its pronunciation (for example: see Definition:Integer)
 * 2) Its plural form (for example: see Definition:Continuum (Topology)‎)
 * 3) Its etymology (for example: see Definition:Summand)

Boldface is used for all words which directly relate to the term being defined.

The pronunciation is given in simple, phonetic English, with syllables separated by hyphens.

Stressed syllables are indicated in italics, hence the rendering: syl-la-ble.

Note that the Linguistic Note section is not mandatory for any page; it is created only when there is a need.

It needs to be remembered that is accessed by users worldwide, to whom English is not their first language, and may not be familiar with many aspects of mathematical language which may be taken for granted by a native English speaker.

Also note that if there are differences between UK and US English forms of the spelling, the pronunciation or the plural form of any term, then this is the section to document it.

Technical Note
On definitions pages, typically some notation is introduced.

When rendering this notation using $\LaTeX$ requires some involved trickery, the code for achieving this may be explained in a section named "Technical Note".

See Definition:Convergence in Measure for an example.