I propose that we allow A' , B' , etc., as class variables, at least to support geometry. This would make it much easier to indicate corresponding values (such as points) and make it easier for proofs to more obviously match their original source material. Having primed variables is already common mathematical practice, so we'd be supporting common practices.
Background: I'm hoping to contribute to the Elementary Geometry section, so I've been walking through the current set.mm work due mostly to Thierry Arnoux, Mario Carneiro, and Scott Fenton. This involves reading [Schwabauser], something of a trick since it's in German and I can't read German. (Hello Google translate!) An unnecessary challenge in doing this is that the geometry proofs often involve many points that correspond to each other, which is typically indicated by a prime. However, the set.mm main body doesn't support that. This inability to easily indicate point correspondences makes it unnecessarily hard to read the proof statements, AND it creates an unnecessary difference between set.mm and the original source material. For example, here are the key hypotheses and conclusion of http://us.metamath.org/mpeuni/tgifscgr.html π΅ β (π΄πΌπΆ) ; "B is between A and C" πΉ β (πΈπΌπΎ)) (π΄ β πΆ) = (πΈ β πΎ) (π΅ β πΆ) = (πΉ β πΎ) (π΄ β π·) = (πΈ β π») (πΆ β π·) = (πΎ β π») Proves (π΅ β π·) = (πΉ β π») If we allowed A' etc., this could expressed as the following, which is MUCH clearer because the "primed" class variables make correspondences MUCH more obvious: π΅ β (π΄πΌπΆ) ; "B is between A and C" π΅' β (π΄' πΌ πΆ' ) (π΄ β πΆ) = (π΄' β πΆ' ) (π΅ β πΆ) = (π΅' β πΆ' ) (π΄ β π·) = (π΄' β π·' ) (πΆ β π·) = (πΆ' β π·' ) Proves (π΅ β π·) = (π΅' β π·') Having "primed" variables is very common in mathematics, and there's no technical reason set.mm can't support them. These are *already* defined in the Mathbox for Jonathan Ben-Naim, so they just have to be moved up. We could also move up double-primed (A") if desired. Let's do it! --- David A. Wheeler -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Metamath" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/metamath/E1juiC6-0004X6-W9%40rmmprod06.runbox.
