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Open and closed intervals in R

Hi Norm,

we have recently spoken by mail of open and closed intervals in RR. I have just come across a beautifully written manual about topology (http://uob-community.ballarat.edu.au/~smorris/topbookchap1-9.pdf). The chapter 2 is about "euclidean topology" and I think it may be interesting to add these theorems to have a concrete and useful example of a topology. You had proposed me to add open and closed intervals in set.mm and I think that in fact I have now a large set of theorems that use these notions so if you have found a solution to the problem of notation we had spoken of I would be pleased to use them.

You had asked me it I had an example of the [ a , b [ notation. I have checked and you can find some in Bourbaki's volume dealing with set theory. I can find the exact reference if you need it.

fl 22-Dec-2006

There would be 4 new definitions. I don't like Bourbaki's "]1,5]" instead of "(1,5]" because it is hardly ever used and is probably considered obsolete. If we want to use the operation notation (recommended because it already has a large collection of theorems), offhand I can think of 5 possible notations for set.mm:

  ( A (...) B )   ( A (..) B )   ( A (.) B )   ( A (,) B )   ( A () B )
  ( A (...] B )   ( A (..] B )   ( A (.] B )   ( A (,] B )   ( A (] B )
  ( A [...) B )   ( A [..) B )   ( A [.) B )   ( A [,) B )   ( A [) B )
  ( A [...] B )   ( A [..] B )   ( A [.] B )   ( A [,] B )   ( A [] B )

I would be interested in opinions as to what notation people like the best. Picking the first notation arbitrarily, the new operations would be defined as follows:

 df-ioo $a |- (...) = { <. <. x , y >. , z >. | ( ( x e. RR* /\ y e. RR* )
                /\ z = { w e. RR* | ( x < w /\ w < y ) } ) } $.
 df-ioc $a |- (...] = { <. <. x , y >. , z >. | ( ( x e. RR* /\ y e. RR* )
                /\ z = ( ( x (...) y ) u. { y } ) } $.
 df-ico $a |- [...) = { <. <. x , y >. , z >. | ( ( x e. RR* /\ y e. RR* )
                /\ z = ( ( x (...) y ) u. { x } ) } $.
 df-icc $a |- [...] = { <. <. x , y >. , z >. | ( ( x e. RR* /\ y e. RR* )
                /\ z = ( ( x (...] y ) u. { x } ) } $.

Note that RR* includes +-oo, so we can have ( 1 […) +oo ), etc.

Some simple theorems would be

  ( -oo (...) +oo ) = RR
  ( -oo [...] +oo ) = RR*
  ( A e. RR* -> ( A [...] A ) = { A } )
  ( A e. RR* -> ( A (...) A ) = (/) )

If we need intervals on QQ, we can intersect it with the RR* interval; I doubt they are sufficiently common to justify a separate notation. Two theorems for the existing ZZ intervals df-uz and df-fz would be:

   ( M e. ZZ -> ( ZZ> ` M ) = ( ( M [...) +oo ) i^i ZZ ) )
   ( M e. ZZ /\ N e. ZZ ) -> ( M ... N ) = ( ( M [...] N ) i^i ZZ ) )

norm 22 Dec 2006

P.S. Shouldn't this page be under set.mm discussion or has that page been abandoned as a lost cause?

No obviously we can transfer everything in set.mm discussion (I had only thought of this page as a required feature and linked it accordingly). We can also slightly modify the name of set.mm discussion in case that our malicious reader is not a human but a script.

I think that in France the [ a , b [ notation is still widely used. But in fact I can change my habits. I like ( A (] B ). The simpler, the better. – fl 22-Dec-2006

Parentheses are not allowed in identifiers in Ghilbert, because of their use in S-expressions. I also currently have [] for the quotient operation [ A ] R. So, if the choice were entirely up to me, I'd choose ]..[ ]..] [..[ and [..] for the operation names, with ],[ ],] [,[ and [,] a close second (to be consistent with Bourbaki notation). I'm certainly in favor of the new operations, exactly as defined above (domain RR*).

P.S. I'm brewing up a wiki at ghilbert.org, so if the spam problem isn't solved here soon, we will have another viable alternative.

raph 22 Dec 2006

I prefer ( A (] B ). If people complain that the former is confusing in the Metamath program or mmj2, then ( A (,] B ) is my second choice because it is a bit more reminiscent of (A,B]. – steverod 22-Dec-2006


Ooops. I see that "…" is already defined as a class in cfz.

Also, I see that "(" is already used in wss and wpss, so how does ghilbert handle those?

Given everything I guess I agree with steverod.

--ocat

The names of wss and wpss have to be rewritten, and, in set_mm.gh, are C_ and C: respectively. I can certainly do the same for the interval operators - it's just a few more entries in tables in the translation code. So I am not going to insist that new names be paren-free, just record my preference. – raph

Me too, I replace (_ by C_ because emacs doesn't like extra parentheses. I wonder if there is a way to change its behaviour. It doesn't like ( A " B ) either but for other reasons. – fl 232-Dec-2006

If I were doing set.mm for myself only, I might choose "(]" for its simplicity. But I think "(,]" will be easier for some people to remember since it is more suggestive of the standard notation. Another possibility I thought of is "(.,.]" that may be even more suggestive but is longer to type. I am warming to the Bourbaki-inspired "],]" since it is compatible with Ghilbert and it has a certain elegance because it doesn't mix bracket types. And I hate to think of fl having to change "(" to "C" all the time, although isn't there a way to fix the annoyance in Emacs? But I wish I had more than just the Bourbaki reference for its usage to better justify it. Also, I have to think slightly harder to recognize that "],]" means "open,closed", whereas with "(,]" my recognition is instant - a matter of familiarity I suppose. Bottom line, I haven't decided yet, but in a day or two I'll pick one just to get it into set.mm. It is trivial to change with a simple global substitution, if further pro/con arguments merit. Overall I don't feel too strongly about any particular choice as long as most people are OK with it. By the way, I appreciate the opinions that have been offered. – norm 24 Dec 2006

Perhaps most interesting is that ],] and the like don't need the Shift key. (non-US non-QWERTY keyboards may vary) The American side of me still prefers (] though. :) --steverod 24 Dec 2006

Although part of me likes the "[,[" notation, I have finally decided against it, for now, unless there is some strenous objection.

In a day or so, I'll put some starting theorems in set.mm. From there, I will let other people add additional theorems, if they are interested. – norm 26 Dec 2006