Re: **EXTERN** Re: Saving old papers on CT

[Thomas Streicher <streicher@mathematik.tu-darmstadt.de>]

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> > I am fully aware that Jean was a controversial figure in his days.
>
> Could you indicate what controversy this was?

It started before I got into categorical circles in the mid 80s.
Some of its traces can be found on the categories list.

One of the visible expressions is Jean's 1985 JSL article where he
devotes 2 pages explaining why his work was superior to the one of
Par'e and Schumacher in a way much more explicit than usual.

As I understand it he presented his work 1974 in lectures of at Montreal.
A couple of years later Pare and Schumacher came up with their long
article phrasing things in the language of indexed cats. Jean
complained about certain defects of the latter approach. But as I
understand he was essentially upset that they published his material
before him. But he definitely was a perfectionist and the writing of
the book was never finished.

That is the impression of a person who was not involved those days and
just knows things from rumour and what people said.

I know Jean as a very polite person but also that under certain
circumstances he could easily "explode".

I heard him talk the first time at Logic Colloquium in Firenze in 1982
where he gave a very condensed version of his later JSL article
including the controversy. I noticed that there was an obvious tension
in the room. But I didn't care and rather got curious about fibered
categories. I received very early a copy of Roisin's handwritten notes
which I read with great delight. Over the years I got into it more and more
and finally when asked to lecture on it in Munich in 1999 I strated to
prepare some notes for myself in order to not forget about material
which was not easily available. For me it is an indispensible tool for
doing category theory over arbitrary base toposes.

Your question shows that a younger generation of category theorists
is not aware of those things. In a sense this is good so and normal since
it allows to look at things in a more objective way.

But since this material was never really published and the copies I provided
are not of the best quality (see
https://www2.mathematik.tu-darmstadt.de/~streicher/FibCatTexts/)<https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/SqgqCyoj8PuMEVoqcM2-CM?domain=mathematik.tu-darmstadt.de> I
think it would be a service to the community to have them available in
more readable form.

Whether it is necessary to translate them I am not so sure.

In any case I am not interested in heating up an old and by now dead
conflict.
My intention just is to preserve important work for future generations
since I found reading it most delightful.

I was told to make an official submission but could not find any form
for that. Rather have the impression that these things are decided by some
responsible board. It is their decision but it might be helpful to
express on the cat-list whether one is interested in the preservation
of this material. Just to find out whether it is worth the effort to
retype those things.

Thomas



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