Talk:Quaternions and spatial rotation: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 23:37, 5 December 2006

Revision as of 18:34, 30 December 2006

Line 157:

Is anyone actively editing this page at the moment? I would hack out the obfuscation in this article but for fears that someone else already has designs on it. Previous comments recommend an overhaul, and I concur. We have definitions from dictionaries a century old. We have vast notation and concepts sections which are at best redundant, at worst counterproductive. What should be the meat of the article doesn't arrive until three quarters of the way through. The article should *start* with 1.) q = cos(α/2) + u sin(α/2) and 2.) f_{q}(x) = q x q* and expand from there. Unless someone can provide a *really good* reason why so much history and handwaving needs to included in a practical article such as this, it's all going to get removed. [[User:Endomorphic|Endomorphic]] 02:24, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

: As a rank amateur researching quaternions, I would be delighted to see you perform the aforementioned surgery as soon as possible.

: I've edited a technical magazine for six years and know irrelevancy when I see it. I followed this link sincerely hoping to see something such as, well... "1.) q = cos(α/2) + u sin(α/2) and 2.) f_{q}(x) = q x q* and expand from there". Over time, perhaps folks could even add in a few diagrams; the topic is, after all, rotations and spins.

: The main issue is the obliviousness of the article to the link-intensive style of Wikipedia. That excellent style allows both amateurs (me) and experts (Endomorphic for example) to use the same articles with nearly equal ease. I follow nearly every link as a sort of guided study program. An expert looking at the same text skips over all the links and goes right to what they need. By replicating the contents of an old-style, stand-alone study book, this article instead creates an overly lengthy, out-of-context, and necessarily out-of-date tome that is equally frustrating for both amateurs and experts.

: As a consolation for the sincerely directed efforts of the translator, perhaps some of the early materials could be used to create small, new, properly linked entries for topics not already covered. I seriously doubt the resulting small articles would even be referenced by the final version of this one, though.

: Finally: Since fools go where angels fear to tread, and since I am, ah, very much in the former category, I hereby give fair warning that I will shortly undertake to do a major chop on this critter if Endomorphic or someone else does not do so fairly soon. I can't add anything, but as an editor I know what irrelevancy looks like, and I can be a terror with the editing knife when the circumstances merit it.

: [[User:Terry Bollinger|Terry Bollinger]] 18:34, 30 December 2006 (UTC)