Hi Volker, On 2014-01-04, Volker Braun <vbraun.n...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Friday, January 3, 2014 2:11:30 PM UTC-10, Thierry > (sage-googlesucks@xxx) wrote: >> >> - Polyhedron() polytopes. (i prefer "Polytope() polytopes." over >> "Polyhedron() polyhedrons." since polyhedron is usually specific to >> dimension 3). > > That is not the usual notation, most authors define a polytope to be a > compact polyhedron. The dimension is arbitray. So the constructor should > always be "Polyhedron".
Much to my surprise, I found that the English Wikipedia defines a polyhedron as "a solid in three dimensions with flat faces and straight edges". The French Wikipedia also just states that a polyhedron is a geometric form in three dimensions. The German Wikipedia states that in a narrower sense a polyhedron is as in the English and French Wikipedia, but at least it mentions that in the broader sense the mathematical notion is different. I believe that English and French Wikipedia are totally and German Wikipedia almost totally wrong here. Around my PhD thesis, the theory of polyhedra and (convex) polytopes was part of my field of expertise, and I totally agree with Volker that polyhedra are defined in arbitrary dimension and polytopes are compact polyhedra. Now we have to decide: Shall Sage adopt a notion that is surprisingly widespread but is refused by experts of the field? I believe Sage is a maths software and thus should use notions that are backed up by text books in the relevant fields, and should not rely on folklore. Best regards, Simon -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "sage-devel" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to sage-devel+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to sage-devel@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-devel. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
