Calculus/Contributing

Notes on contributing to the Calculus textbook. This is the Wikibooks:Local manuals of style for the Calculus textbook.

Note to new contributors

The guidelines given below are intended to keep the organization and style of the book consistent, to reduce the need to rework edits, and to communicate best practices. It is not intended to be a barrier to contributions by would-be contributors. If you have something to contribute but don't have time to read up on all the guidelines given below, go ahead and make your contribution. Other experienced contributors can touch up your edits afterwards so that they conform to the guidelines.

Structure

The structure currently being implemented is as follows:

• The book is divided into chapters and sections, with related sections grouped into supersections (e.g. Integration Techniques within the Integration chapter). These sections are listed on the main page.
• Each section is assigned a section number.
• "==" should be the highest level header used in any section. "=" is reserved for major divisions within the print version of the book.
• Each page including exercises links to a corresponding page of solutions.
• Pages of solutions are organized based on their corresponding page of exercises (exercises set one has a corresponding set one of solutions, etc.).

Conventions

• Use {{Newpage}} templates to separate chapters and sections in the print version.
• Section titles should use title casing while sub-section headers should use sentence casing. Named theorems should be capitalized (e.g. Mean Value Theorem).
• All content pages and section pages should include the {{Calculus/Top Nav}} template at the top and bottom of the page. This template links to the previous and next section or content page. The order of pages defined by the links in the {{Calculus/Top Nav}} template should agree with all tables of contents.
• All content pages and section pages should include {{Calculus/TOC}} just below the bottom {{Calculus/Top Nav}} template.
• Whenever you want to refer to a section by its section number, use {{Calculus/map page|[Section-Name]}}. Then any changes in the ordering of sections can be done easily by changing the {{Calculus/map page}} template.
• Exercises are sequentially numbered within each section.
• Solutions should be complete and logical. Particularly important steps should be noted and described in words as well as being shown symbolically. Naming Convention: Calculus/[Section-Name]/Solutions (ex. Calculus/Differentiation/Solutions)
• Give each figure a figure number. Figure numbering restarts with each new section.
• Use {{nowrap begin}} and {{nowrap end}} for inline math text that shouldn't be broken up across lines.
• Link figure references in the text to the figure's file using {{nowrap begin}}[[:File:Name-of_File|Figure ''k'']]{{nowrap end}}.
• Use "\left(" and "\right)" for parenthesis, "\left|" and "\right|" for absolute values, etc. This makes the LaTeX render better in many cases.
• Use an invisible delimiter (i.e. "\.") with "\|_a^b" for evaluating the antiderivative of an definite integral. The invisible delimiter causes the size of the vertical bar to be sized according to the size of the expression being evaluated.
• Use question-answer templates for exercises like this:

{{question-answer|question=1. Question-goes-here|answer={{noprint|Answer-goes-here}}}}

The noprint template prevents the answer from appearing with the exercise in the print version.

• Solutions (as opposed to answers) go on the solutions page like this:

{{question-answer|question=1. Question-goes-here|answer=Answer-goes-here}}

Bold the answer using either '''Answer''' or <math>\mathbf{Answer}</math> so that people using the print version can quickly find the answer.

• Prefer \frac{a}{b} to {a\over b}. Using consistent markup reduces the need to do multiple searches on different search terms if looking for a particular fraction.
• Use a single space between sentences unless there is a specific reason to do otherwise. Extra whitespace is ignored anyway, so adding extra whitespace only adds to the size of the page without changing its appearance. If you need to add extra whitespace for layout, use "&nbsp;" (the html code for a space) within text or "\,", "\quad", or "\qquad" within <math> tags for small, medium, and large spaces, respectively.

Templates

See Category:Book:Calculus/Templates for a list of all Calculus textbook templates.

{{Calculus/Top Nav}}

{{Calculus/Top Nav|Limits|Infinite Limits}} produces this navigation box:

All Calculus content pages should include this at the top of the page and at the bottom just above the {{Calculus/TOC}} template.

{{Calculus/TOC}}

{{Calculus/TOC}} produces this navigation box:

All Calculus content pages should include this at the bottom of the page. This also adds the page to the book category.

{{Calculus/map page}}

{{Calculus/map page|Algebra}} returns the section number for the Algebra section, i.e. 1.1. Use this template when you want to refer to a section by its section number. If you re-order the sections, edit the {{Calculus/map page}} template to reflect the new ordering. That way all references in the book will be updated to return the correct section number.

{{Calculus/Def}}

{{Calculus/Def|text=My definition here.}} produces a box for important text:

My definition here.

Use this to introduce significant new definitions and concepts. See Calculus/Limits#Informal definition of a limit, where the informal definition of a limit is inside such a box.

{{Calculus/Stub}}

{{Calculus/Stub}} produces a stub notice, signifying that the given page or section is too short.

On inclusiveness vs. exclusiveness

An Extensions section is included for further topics. Any study beyond fairly basic calculus should be in this section. We should aim to include more than is necessary and ensure that our readers are aware of this. The book should be structured so that J. Random Student can find a rigorous course in the essentials of calculus but also include further study of the topic that readers can pick and choose topics from, as their interests warrant.

TODO

• ADD MORE, ORGANIZE MORE.
• Provide a more in-depth Precalculus section.
• Create problem sets (preferably original, rigorous and realistic).
• Create answer sets.