Talk:Canonical form (Boolean algebra)

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A terrible description of canonical form. Do some research and figure out what canonical form really is please.

Contents 1 sum of products 2 specific definition of minterm number 3 sop/pos 4 an arbitrary Boolean algebra?

[edit] sum of products

If both "sum of products" and "product of sums" redirects here, this page should have some discussion at *least* about the terms. Fresheneesz 07:19, 6 February 2006 (UTC)

Read the article again, closer. Dysprosia 07:20, 6 February 2006 (UTC)

Ok, I read closer. I saw each term mentioned once. No explanation about what either of them mean. Fresheneesz 08:54, 7 February 2006 (UTC)

"sum of products" (minterms OR'd in series).

"product of sums" (maxterms AND'd in series).

I would think that would be a sufficient explanation of a synonym used. There is a lot of explanation of the concepts elsewhere in the article. I don't know what you're expecting to be present in the article. Dysprosia 09:05, 7 February 2006 (UTC)

It'd probably help to put them in the head. SoP and PoS seem to be pretty commonly used. - mako 09:11, 7 February 2006 (UTC)

Ok, its fine now. I just expected that you wouldn't have to scour the article to find something about a term that links to the page. Fresheneesz 22:27, 7 February 2006 (UTC)

It would have helped greatly if you would have said words to that effect. Dysprosia 22:51, 7 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] specific definition of minterm number

I've been taught that theres a standard way to number minterms, and I was wondering if everyone numbers minterms the same way - and if so, then how exactly is it determined. I know one format we use for four variables, but it may not be the only way. Does anyone know about this? Fresheneesz 04:45, 6 March 2006 (UTC)

For computer logic design, in my experience, numbering goes like the "indexing minterms" section says. It's a logical definition IMO. - mako 21:06, 6 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] sop/pos

i'v replaced ...a Boolean function that is composed of standard logical operators... with ...any boolean function... since any boolean function can be expressed as pos/sop.

i'v also added a section about non cannonical sop.pos forms. since they both refer here i feel it is important to have a section about them.

Gregie156 16:16, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] an arbitrary Boolean algebra?

The heading said "in a Boolean algebra", so I disambiguated to Boolean algebra (structure) because of the indefinite article a. But it seems unlikely to me that such a result holds for arbitrary functions from Bⁿ to B, where B is an arbitrary Boolean algebra. Would someone like to clarify what is intended here? --Trovatore 22:02, 23 July 2007 (UTC)

The fact that every Boolean expression can be written in both forms holds in an arbitrary Boolean algebra, because it follows from Boolean algebra (uncountable). I will remove the definite article, change the link, and edit the article so it also mentions the terms that mathematicians use: disjunctive normal form and conjunctive normal form. --Hans Adler (talk) 16:06, 29 January 2008 (UTC)