User:Barto

Please, post any opinions about the below on my talk page. There are some choices to be made, and I don't feel authorized to make them without anyone's consent.

(talk | contribs)

My philosophy:


 * Transparency. Every proof of more than ~ 20 lines should probably be preceded by an Outline of Proof. The level of detail at ProofWiki is otherwise way too high to quickly understand what's going on. Just a very simple overview may make it 10 times as easy to read the proof, no exaggeration. is a very qualitative and even more unique source with both outlines and fully detailed proofs.
 * Coherence. When writing a proof, look if part of it has already been proved elsewhere. If there are two proofs doing the same reasoning to arrive at an intermediate result; consider placing that result in a separate page (either as Theorem or Lemma). Long proofs are difficult to read, especially in the style they are presented at ProofWiki. Linking to other articles allows, if this makes the proof shorter, for a global view and quicker understanding.
 * If a proof is too long, it needs more lemma's.


 * Connecting pages. Aside from the usual links, I try to add at least one link in the Also See section. This allows us to guide visitors to related or more interesting results. -- Just don't go too mad. Try to make it so that "Also see" contains only items that are immediately relevant. We already have a "What links here" option, and at least one Category. The danger is that this section can soon become bloated and distracting. -- Yes, true. Of course if I don't find any relevant pages, I don't add any. Thanks for the feedback.

Revolutionary Ideas


 * A namespace for algorithms
 * Make proofwiki popular and more known using some kind of blog (e.g. put the facebook page to use)
 * An idea to make pages more neat and appealing: Add a templates to include hidden notes containing material such as:
 * Links to definitions (instead of cluttering the page with things like "Where $\cup$ denotes union" The "clutter", as you call it, is essential. Leaving the concepts undefined is not acceptable. So until someone designs some "hidden notes" template, we must include the links to the appropriate definitions. Until that time, the fact that this may be unappealing to you is regrettable but unavoidable.
 * Links to more trivial results being used (to avoid cluttering the page of a more advanced proof with links to elementary results that are still worth mentioning, but not worth taking space).
 * Those hidden notes would show upon clicking and disappear when clicking again. Or when hovering, and disappear when moving the mouse away. (abandoned)


 * Host ProofWiki on some institution's servers so as to get rid of ads. Some people tell me they don't want to use or contribute to just because it has ads. That's sad. I think it is not hard to find a university or something that's willing to host the site for free. They tend to have huge servers anyway, so hosting  won't make a big difference for them.

Asymptotic notations
See the project page User:Barto/Asymptotic Notation

Properties

 * $O$ and Taylor-expansion of (real) analytic functions
 * Substitution of estimates:
 * Substitution in Big-O Estimate
 * Integration of $O$ and $o$-estimates
 * Mention uniform-$O$ conventions:
 * Definition:Uniform Big-O Estimate
 * Differentiation of $O$-estimates

Infinite Products

 * Convergence and analyticity of analytic products $\checkmark$
 * Logarithmic derivatives and analyticity $\checkmark$
 * Goal: A treatment of Factorization of Analytic functions, including full versions of Weierstrass and Hadamard factorization. Apply this to e.g. the Gamma Function and deduce Stirling's Formula for complex arguments.
 * Difficulty: this needs a proper set of definitions of asymptotic notations (see corresponding project)

Modules

 * Make a page (or at least a transclusion) for Definition:Module Homomorphism. Note that there is Definition:Linear Transformation, Definition:R-Algebraic Structure Homomorphism and Definition:Isomorphism (Abstract Algebra)/R-Algebraic Structure Isomorphism where module isomorphisms are defined.

Direct Product and Direct Sum
and the naming of those subdefinitions should be consistent: Finite Case, General Case or something like that.
 * Make sure that the definition pages for direct products include a definition for arbitrary families. Ideally, there should be:
 * A definition for two components
 * A definition for a finite number of components
 * A definition for general families
 * (Optionally: a definition for countable families)


 * For direct sums, the definition for general families should suffice.


 * Be consistent in naming pages:
 * product vs. sum: product is the primary notion, sum is derived from it. It is thus impossible to define the direct sum without defining the direct product; unless when they coincide and allow for ambiguous naming.
 * External vs. internal: If nothing is specified, external has to be understood. IMO external can be removed from titles; it's unnecessarily pedantic; though I could live with it if it stays.
 * Word order: (less important) Direct Product of X's vs. X Direct Product? I'm in favor of Direct Product of X's, and accordingly for sum, internal or not internal.
 * The following table shows the jolly inconsistencies (no, I didn't misplace the entries):

Please, feel free to add missing entries. These are the only definitions I found so far (not including transclusions). Some definitions are still to be extracted from a theorem that's being refactored.

Dimension

 * Definition:Basis (Linear Algebra): refactor definitions; show equivalence; add definitino using Definition:Free Module on Set
 * Definition:Dimension (Linear Algebra): mention that it is well-defined, with reference
 * Definition:Ordered Basis
 * Unitary R-Modules with n-Element Bases Isomorphic
 * Isomorphism from R^n via n-Term Sequence
 * Unique Representation by Ordered Basis

Support

 * Elements with Support in Ideal form Submagma of Direct Product: fix notion of ideal and link
 * Elements of Finite Support form Submagma of Direct Product same
 * Support of Product is Contained in Union of Supports How to organize?

Polynomials
Specifically, Definition:Polynomial (Abstract Algebra)


 * Many definitions are nothing but special cases: once we have defined a polynomial over a ring, there's no need to define it once more over an integral domain. Not only is this superfluous, it's also wrong (albeit in a very mild sense in this case) to define something twice. Maybe we can leave a note for polynomials over fields, but it should be emphasized that it is defined as the polynomial over the field considered as ring.

Solution: rename those definition pages to reflect what they do define: "polynomials in elements" or "polynomial elements" (I don't know what they're usually called), and not polynomial expressions, whatever that might mean
 * Some definitions seem to define polynomials over a ring $R$ as polynomials "in an element" $x\in R$. There are two problems with this:
 * Some notions, such as Definition:Degree of Polynomial/Ring are ill-defined. Probably there are more such issues, such as leading coefficient etc
 * It gives no way to introduce a variable $X$; that is, to construct an actual polynomial ring because those polynomials are not new elements that were not already in the ring. Said otherwise, one has to invoke two definitions to make an actual polynomial: one introducing a variable and making a ring out of that, one to consider polynomials.


 * I've never heard Definition:Ring of Polynomial Forms before visiting ProofWiki. I'd rather call it simply Definition:Ring of Polynomials, which is unfortunately already occupied (redirect page) by a much less common notion.


 * Add a definition of polynomials ("polynomial forms", if you wish) using Definition:Monoid Ring


 * Add a definition of polynomial functions (over ring $R$) using the evaluation morphism in the identity to the ring of functions $R\to R$ (with pointwise operations)

Modules

 * Address the cardinality of a basis of a module $\checkmark$ see Bases of Free Module have Equal Cardinality
 * Define modules and unitary modules using Definition:Endomorphism Ring of Abelian Group, see Morphism to Endomorphism Ring Defines Module
 * Determining Definition:Multilinear Mapping using basises, use this in Definition:Monoid Ring
 * Correspondence between Definition:Multilinear Mapping and linear maps to Definition:Module of Multilinear Mappings.

Multiple roots in a ring
Let $R$ be a commutative ring with unity and $P\in R[X]$ TFAE:


 * $P$ has no multiple roots in $R$.
 * $P$ and $P'$ have no common roots in $R$.

Separable Polynomial
TFAE:


 * $P$ has distinct roots in some algebraic closure.
 * $P$ has at least $n$ distinct roots in some algebraic closure.
 * $P$ has at exactly $n$ distinct roots in some algebraic closure.
 * $P$ has no multiple roots in some algebraic closure.


 * $P$ has distinct roots in some field extension where $P$ splits
 * $P$ has $n$ distinct roots in some field extension where $P$ splits
 * $P$ has no multiple roots in some field extension where $P$ splits


 * $P$ has distinct roots in every field extension where $P$ splits
 * $P$ has $n$ distinct roots in every field extension where $P$ splits
 * $P$ has no multiple roots in every field extension where $P$ splits


 * $P$ has distinct roots in every field extension
 * $P$ has no multiple roots in every field extension

etc..

Interesting selection:


 * $P$ has at least $n$ distinct roots in some field extension.
 * $P$ has exactly $n$ distinct roots in every field extension where $P$ splits
 * $P$ has no multiple roots in every field extension
 * $\gcd(P,P')=1$ in $K[X]$.

to be continued

Definition-level

 * Support of Product is Contained in Union of Supports


 * Free Module Indexed by Set is Free
 * Canonical Basis of Free Module Indexed by Set is Basis
 * Endomorphism Ring of Abelian Group is Ring
 * Module of Homomorphisms between Modules is Module
 * Monoid Ring is Ring


 * Universal Property of Free Modules
 * Universal Property of Direct Product of Modules
 * Universal Property of Direct Sum of Modules
 * Universal Property of Monoid Ring

Spaces of Morphisms

 * Definition:Dual Module
 * Definition:Group of Homomorphisms Between Abelian Groups
 * Definition:Endomorphism Ring of Abelian Group
 * Definition:Module of Homomorphisms Between Modules
 * Definition:Module of Multilinear Mappings
 * Definition:Endomorphism Ring of Module
 * Note that there is already a general Definition:Group of Automorphisms for algebraic structures with one operation.

Long Term Projects

 * Disambiguate between left and right modules. Does this mean that every occurrence of "module" should be amended? Very probably. The coverage of this is inadequate, as will be seen when we come to tensors.

Enhancing the Help Section
One of the things I like to do is expanding the Help Section. This is to avoid questions being brought up over and over, and discussions to be lost in the talk pages.

Do I think every single minor discussion point should be addressed in the Help Section? Yes.