From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Msuck: nntp://news.gmane.io/gmane.science.mathematics.categories/6252 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Todd Trimble Newsgroups: gmane.science.mathematics.categories Subject: Re: terminology Date: Tue, 28 Sep 2010 22:03:44 -0400 Message-ID: Reply-To: Todd Trimble NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset=iso-8859-1; reply-type=response Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7BIT X-Trace: dough.gmane.org 1285802306 8609 80.91.229.12 (29 Sep 2010 23:18:26 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@dough.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 29 Sep 2010 23:18:26 +0000 (UTC) Cc: Categories list To: "Eduardo J. Dubuc" Original-X-From: majordomo@mlist.mta.ca Thu Sep 30 01:18:24 2010 Return-path: Envelope-to: gsmc-categories@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from smtpy.mta.ca ([138.73.1.139]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1P15up-0004V8-NI for gsmc-categories@m.gmane.org; Thu, 30 Sep 2010 01:18:24 +0200 Original-Received: from mlist.mta.ca ([138.73.1.63]:37928) by smtpy.mta.ca with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1P15to-00039S-2e; Wed, 29 Sep 2010 20:17:20 -0300 Original-Received: from majordomo by mlist.mta.ca with local (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1P15tY-0001XW-0i for categories-list@mlist.mta.ca; Wed, 29 Sep 2010 20:17:04 -0300 Precedence: bulk Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.science.mathematics.categories:6252 Archived-At: In reference to Eduardo's recent comment >I feel the need to clarify some of my postings. > > Due to some public and private mails I realized that most people though > that I > was talking about the nLab. > Well, all the time, when referring to "ghetto" or "subculture" I was > aiming to > the WHOLE of the category community within mathematics, not at the nLab > within > the category community. > I for one didn't get the impression you were referring to the nLab. My own comment was in response to Andre Joyal who wrote "The 'evil' terminology is promoted by a small group of peoples active in the nLab. It does not reflect a commun usage in themathematical community." I thought this could lead to a misunderstanding about the nLab, hence my comment. > Actually, I was not even aware of the existence of the nLab. Due to this > controversy, I visit the nLab and at first sight I essentially (not fully) > agree with Andre's comments about the nLab in his recent posting. > > I say, go ahead !, nice work ! > > I can add that I liked the lack of solemnity and the freedom to write down > your understanding without fear to be wrong, and the freedom of the reader > to > insert comments and ask questions. The whole thing is very useful to all > interested in the subjects being written about, and should not to be taken > as > a book in final form, which is not intended to be. Encyclopedia (18 > century) > and Bourbaki are very important, but some fresh air is also important. > Thank you for the nice words (and I'm glad that -- even if nothing else gets resolved -- at least this discussion has heightened awareness of the existence of this project!). The nLab (and the companion discussion forum, the nForum) are still young and small. It's a wiki, like Wikipedia, so that anyone can edit it. Therefore, if you or anyone else sees flaws in an nLab article, you have a warm open invitation to improve it! It's easy to edit, and we appreciate your leaving a note at the nForum to mention changes you make, or to discuss anything you like. We are a loosely aligned group with perhaps a dozen or so very active contributors, including Andrew Stacey, Urs Schreiber, Zoran Skoda, Mike Shulman, Toby Bartels, David Roberts, Tim Porter, David Corfield, and myself. Perhaps the only things that really unite us are a belief in the value of category theory and higher category theory, and a belief in the value of this project. Of course there is also Andre Joyal's CatLab, which runs on the same easy-to-use and highly effective software. Todd [For admin and other information see: http://www.mta.ca/~cat-dist/ ]