Talk:Lists of mathematics topics/Archive 2004-2005

message: If I had seen list of theorems on this page, I might have assumed that was an appropriate place to list Stanley's reciprocity theorem, which I wrote on Friday, and failed to notice that another page, list of mathematical theorems, also exists, on which my listing the new article would be appropriate for the same reason.  I've put in cross-references, making the absurd situation clear.  Those two pages should be merged.  The fact that some propositions conventionally called "theorems" may not be entirely mathematical or entirely rigorous does not mean it is necessary to create a separate page when such huge overlap exists. Michael Hardy 00:47, 25 Oct 2004 (UTC)

message: ... was the commentary on the list of nominations for featured lists. Michael Hardy 19:55, 1 Jun 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: The reason for my recent edits

message: I'm guessing there would be value to mapping the Mathematics Subject Classification (MSC) to this list and vica versa.  Do we have any documentation of the MSC on WP as yet? --- Charles Stewart 14:25, 13 October 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: I don't think it is a good idea. MSC is for mathematicians, this list is for general audience. This is also reason why some wikipedians rejected use of MSC for categories. Samohyl Jan 15:20, 13 October 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: I recall the proposal and argued against it, but I'm not suggesting a restructuring of this list or any content on WP, rather providing in addition means of moving between the two classifications.  For that subset of users familiar with the MSC, knowing which codes are covered by a list is cogent information. --- Charles Stewart 16:19, 13 October 2005 (UTC)

text: All fine, but let's not import any sclerotic notions from elsewhere into our own thinking. The big advantage wiki has is that it is configurable. Charles Matthews 16:44, 13 October 2005 (UTC)

text: Areas of mathematics is as close as we got to the MSC. Oleg Alexandrov (talk) 06:17, 14 October 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: It's not far from what I wanted.  I see that page has some but not many of the lists on this page: it would, I take it, be an improvement to add them all and link to the page from this page. --- Charles Stewart 14:18, 14 October 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Mathematics Subject Classification

message: Should this list go under the logic section?  I'd say it was more of an algebra topic. --- Charles Stewart 04:21, 19 October 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: If you listen to the category theorists, everything would go under it! Actually is homological algebra at heart, so under algebra. Charles Matthews 09:09, 19 October 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: Two for, none against.  I'll move it. --- Charles Stewart 00:17, 20 October 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: [[List of category theory topics]]

message: I don't want to dilute the "list of lists" nature of this article, but if there are to be introductions shouldn't there be some links to other content?  I would propose a guideline stating that in the introduction one (1) link to the appropriate subject page for that section be included.  For example:
:===Mathematical physics===
:Mathematical physics is concerned with "the application of mathematics to problems in physics and the development of mathematical methods suitable for such applications and for the formulation of physical theories".
Note that I'm not suggesting that physics be linked here -- I don't mean to clutter the list, just provide a link to more information about the subject at hand.  Anyone have any opinions on this?  Ben Cairns 12:16, 24 October 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: My first reaction was against it because it distracts from the links to the lists, which are the purpose of the page. However, I now think that it may be a good idea if we indeed restrict ourselves to one link (well, for the prob and stats section we may need two links). My experience is this restriction will be hard to maintain, but it's not impossible. So, as far as I am concerned, go for it. By the way, thanks for helping out. -- Jitse Niesen (talk) 22:24, 24 October 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Links to non-lists 

message: I'm getting some odd error while editing the article and it just gives me the edit screen again when I hit save, with no explanation.  I just need a place to put this description for Mathematical statements in the meantime.
:A mathematical statement amounts to a proposition or assertion of some mathematical concept, formula or construction.  Such statements include axioms and the theorems that may be proved from them, conjectures that may be unproven or even unprovable, and also algorithms for computing the answers to questions that can be expressed mathematically.
Forgot to sign: Ben Cairns 21:55, 24 October 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: Are you sure it gave you ONLY the edit screen, rather than the edit screen followed by a preview?  Giving you that when you hit "save" has been a recurring bug. Michael Hardy 01:01, 25 October 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Difficulty editing 

message: The current opening sentence reads This article contains all the lists collecting articles about mathematics in Wikipedia., which, on the face of it, is a violation of WP:ASR.
In fact, this is a somewhat tricky issue.  Normally articles should not refer to the whole encyclopedia of which they are a part, but lists such as these that try to be a comprehensive need to in order to say what they are there for.
I think we should generalise this to talk about this reference work.  Note an issue with this: syndicates of this work may include more content than this, or less, and so the statement can only be read as faithful for this work and its exact syndicates.  I think this is a problem for the syndicator, not us, hence the proposed change. --- Charles Stewart 16:07, 25 October 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: Maybe a Template:ThisReferenceWork is a better solution? --- Charles Stewart 16:10, 25 October 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: Ref to WP

message: As we discussed earlier in the "featured list" proposal, I propose to move this page to "list of mathematics lists".   "List of lists" is a jarring phrase, because it hints at "list of lists of lists of lists of X", in which you need to count as you go along.  Comments? Michael Hardy 02:45, 15 December 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: You may want to post this instead at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Mathematics s there more people will participate in the discussion. Oleg Alexandrov (talk) 02:56, 15 December 2005 (UTC)

text: I'm going to bring this up on Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Mathematics#Proposed renaming. Redirect further discussion to that page. -- Fropuff 03:21, 15 December 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: proposed page move