User talk:FourThousandTwelve

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[edit] Welcome

Welcome!

Hello, FourThousandTwelve, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are some pages that you might find helpful:

I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your messages on discussion pages using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically insert your username and the date. If you need help, check out Wikipedia:Questions, ask me on my talk page, or ask your question on this page and then place {{helpme}} before the question. Again, welcome! Aboutmovies (talk) 06:25, 13 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Initial context setting

Probably others have pointed out to you by now that Wikipedia's style conventions call for fewer capital letters than you used in Schmidt normal form, but I'd like to point out the matter of initial context-setting. If you write

The Schmidt normal form is a normal form that can be defined for any matrix (not necessarily square) with entries in a principal ideal domain (PID).

then the non-mathematician reader may not know whether this is supposed to be about renaisance poetry, chemistry, theology, library science, international tax treaties, navigation of ocean-liners, software, football tactics, musical tuning, etc. So just add a couple of initial words:

In mathematics, the Schmidt normal form is a normal form that can be defined for any matrix (not necessarily square) with entries in a principal ideal domain (PID).

Then no one can complain of "insufficient context". Michael Hardy (talk) 20:56, 15 April 2008 (UTC)