User talk:TruXus

Welcome
Welcome to ProofWiki! Since you're new, you may want to check out the general help page. It's the best first stop to see how things are done (next to reading proofs, of course!). Please feel free to contribute to whichever area of mathematics interests you, either by adding new proofs, or fixing up  existing ones. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me, or post your question on the  questions page.

Here are some useful pages to help get you started:
 * Community Portal - To see what needs to be done, and keep up to date with the community.
 * Recent Changes - To keep up with what's new, and what's being added.
 * Check out our house style if you are keen on contributing.
 * Main Page talk - This is where most of the main discussions regarding the direction of the site take place. If you have any ideas, please share them!

Best, Alec (talk)

House Style
Please take time out to read our house style, so at to get a feeling for the way things are done on this site.

Most importantly, every concept that is included in a proof needs to have a link to the page where that concept is defined or proved. This is the fundamental rule of ProofWiki and its very reason for existence.

If you can't find such a concept defined, then still add a link (it will appear in red), and someone eventually will go and create the proof / definition.

We have been attempting to build this site from the ground up, so there are few proofs which do not link eventually back to the axioms. --prime mover 00:40, 23 August 2011 (CDT)

Notation for Is A Divisor Of
You're right, $\mid$ is quite common. I have a pile of books at my side which use it. But it is not the only notation for "is a divisor of".

If you care to read the page Definition:Divisor you will see the reference in the literature to his bold decision to use $\backslash$. Indeed, it is Donald E. Knuth who is pioneering this. My view is that his ideas on notation tend to be good.

I recommend his "The Art of Computer Programming", and "Concrete Mathematics" (Graham, Knuth, Patashnik), both extensively cited on this site. Both are generally (as far as I know) considered worthy references in the mathematical community. Not everybody likes them (neither is flawless by a long way), but I believe they are worth at least becoming aware of - if for no other reason than because they are genuinely original and challenging.

In short, I understand that the notation is not to your taste, but then it is not possible to pick a notation that suits everybody. However, if we are to exhibit a "house style", then we need to adopt a certain level of consistency. The usual way of proceeding, when a notation is not universal, is to link to the page where it is defined (as has been done on the page you are raising the dispute on). It is IMO unreasonable to expect that every visitor to a page will understand all the notation, so if there is any possible cause for misunderstanding we always make sure all terms are defined.

Also please note the caveat at the bottom of the edit pane: "If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly ..., then do not submit it here."

I hope this clears up any points of difference. --prime mover 14:04, 23 August 2011 (CDT)

Please sign your talk posts
Oh and one other thing: when leaving a comment on a talk page (only talk pages, that is) then please sign your post, by clicking on the "signature" button in the group of buttons above the edit pane - it's the 3rd from the right, and looks like a scribble. This will add two hyphens and four tildes at the place where the cursor is. When you save your post, the app will replace the tildes with an identifier containing your user name and a link to your talk page.

This is necessary in order to ensure that, during a discussion, whatever is said does not get misattributed. We consider this to be important. --prime mover 14:13, 23 August 2011 (CDT)

Reply to Notation
Is it really that important to you? If so, then so be it, I will try to remember to refrain from changing $\mid$ to $\backslash$ in all the pages which you have started. --prime mover 00:15, 24 August 2011 (CDT)

Categories for pages
One more thing: please remember when you add a new page that it needs to be put into a category.

Note that there are (broadly speaking) two sorts of category: proofs and definitions.

There is a tool in "MediaWiki Functions" which puts the raw template in place for you to edit.

I won't go into detail as to how this is done, beyond to suggest you copy the way other pages are done.

That latter advice goes for all pages being edited. --prime mover 01:31, 24 August 2011 (CDT)

text vs. operatorname
Another thing you may have picked up on is when I change from, for example: \text{Gal} to \operatorname{Gal}. I appreciate it takes more typing, but there is a reason for \operatorname to be used for defining operators. I direct you to the emerging industry standard of HTML5 where tags are assigned according to what they do rather than how they are expected to appear for the philosophical basis for this. --prime mover 01:41, 24 August 2011 (CDT)