Talk:Pi

I think the transcription "pi" is not needed here since the correct greek character π is readily available in HTML. IMO "pi" needs only be used once in the introduction and in code snippets (programming languages), etc.

On a related token, has there been a discussion earlier e.g. on the seqfan list, about whether "Pi" is to be preferred over "pi" when the latin transcription is mandatory? (As of today, the page Style_Sheet#Spelling_and_notation advocates to prefer the former over the latter, which is IMO an artefact of (admittedly many, if not almost all) programming languages and CAS.) It would be nice to see different opinions expressed here. — M. F. Hasler 17:50, 27 December 2011 (UTC)

I would be in favor of amending the OEIS Wiki part of the Style Sheet to say that we can avail ourselves to either the HTML character identity or rendered TeX in the wiki. Thus, for A202955 as the Sequence of the Day, I wrote $\pi ^{\pi ^{\pi ^{\pi }}}$ rather than Pi^Pi^Pi^Pi. — Alonso del Arte 21:56, 27 December 2011 (UTC)

P.S. Note that if you attempt to create π, the wiki will instead create Π. — Alonso del Arte 22:13, 27 December 2011 (UTC)

This is because the Mediawiki server auto-capitalizes the page names by default. It is possible to configure it so it doesn't auto-capitalize. Cf. Manual:$wgCapitalLinks — Daniel Forgues 23:19, 27 December 2011 (UTC)

In the main OEIS, π is unacceptable because it cannot be conveniently searched for (and searching is a major feature there). Perhaps eventually this will be solved—solutions spring to mind—but there are higher priorities at the moment.

I don't think that the intent of the text was to prohibit the use of $\pi$ or π on the wiki; I'm not opposed to its use. I have no opinion on Pi vs. pi except that standardization is desirable.

Charles R Greathouse IV 21:41, 28 December 2011 (UTC)