Content deleted Content added
Line 12:
:::::Well, I didn't say that this article was inaccessible to a non-specialist. I'm not a specialist in convex analysis. It ''should'' be accessible to anyone with a good background in university mathematics. While it is certainly the case that our articles are supposed to be made as accessible to as wide an audience as possible, this is always tempered by a realistic view of who the target audience is. Indeed, most ''scientific'' articles on Wikipedia are not accessible to granny (e.g., [[1,2-Dimethylcyclopropane]]). [[User:Sławomir Biały|<span style="text-shadow:grey 0.3em 0.3em 0.1em; class=texhtml">Sławomir Biały</span>]] ([[User talk:Sławomir Biały|talk]]) 17:05, 25 December 2010 (UTC)
::::::I would lay claim to "a good background in university mathematics" -- but specialising in statistics (and to a lesser extent calculus), not algebra, and I would estimate that I only understand about half the article. If you need to have specialised in algebra to understand it, then I suspect the article serves little purpose as (i) this limits the readership to a considerable degree & (ii) such specialists are probably capable of reading up the primary literature on the topic in any case. <font face="Antiqua, serif">''[[User:Hrafn|Hrafn]]<sup>[[User talk:Hrafn|Talk]]</sup><sub>[[Special:Contributions/Hrafn|Stalk]]</sub><sup>''('''[[M:Precisionism|P]]''')</sup></font> 17:37, 25 December 2010 (UTC)
:::::::I don't know where you get the mistaken idea that the article is primarily about algebra. It discusses convex functions and minimization problems, which are both covered in most university level calculus courses. In response to your second point, indeed this argument could be applied to any article in a specialized topic area. However, such articles exist in abundance, are indeed consistent with Wikipedia's mission. [[User:Sławomir Biały|<span style="text-shadow:grey 0.3em 0.3em 0.1em; class=texhtml">Sławomir Biały</span>]] ([[User talk:Sławomir Biały|talk]]) 17:54, 25 December 2010 (UTC)
::Oh, and according to [[Miscellaneous Technical (Unicode block)]], the symbols I'm missing are 'KEYBOARD' (2328) & 'LEFT-POINTING ANGLE BRACKET' (2329). Why these would appear in a mathematical article, or be expected in a standard OS installation or web browser, I don't know. <font face="Antiqua, serif">''[[User:Hrafn|Hrafn]]<sup>[[User talk:Hrafn|Talk]]</sup><sub>[[Special:Contributions/Hrafn|Stalk]]</sub><sup>''('''[[M:Precisionism|P]]''')</sup></font> 16:44, 25 December 2010 (UTC)
:::Exactly what the status of unicode symbols is in mathematics articles is a perennial debate, but our current [[WP:MOSMATH|Manual of Style]] does give its blessing to unicode symbols that correspond to named html entities. The left and right angle brackets are &lang; and &rang;. But as you probably know, the appropriate way to lobby for this sort of change would be to start a threat at [[WT:MOSMATH]]. (However, this is a discussion that has happened before many times already.) [[User:Sławomir Biały|<span style="text-shadow:grey 0.3em 0.3em 0.1em; class=texhtml">Sławomir Biały</span>]] ([[User talk:Sławomir Biały|talk]]) 16:56, 25 December 2010 (UTC)
| |||