Talk:Outline of combinatorics

Outlines High‑importance

	This article is an outline, a type of article that presents a list of articles or sub-topics related to its subject in a hierarchical form. For the standardized set of outlines on Wikipedia, see Wikipedia:Contents/Outlines. Outlines are within the scope of WikiProject Outlines, a collaborative effort to improve outlines on Wikipedia. For guidance on building and maintaining outlines, see Wikipedia:Outlines.OutlinesWikipedia:WikiProject OutlinesTemplate:WikiProject OutlinesOutlines articles
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Untitled[edit]

I'd seriously suggest changing the irratible bowel syndrome metaphor to one more common and accessible. It doesn't make the text easier, only harder. Anyone got anything better? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.94.253.185 (talk • contribs)

Branches?[edit]

The section titled Branches of combinatorics lists only the following two items:

Combinatorial chemistry
Graph theory

Does combinatorial chemistry really constitute a "branch" of combinatorics? And why does this section omit virtually everything? Michael Hardy (talk) 01:42, 14 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

It appears the section was just started, which would explain the lack of entries. The Transhumanist 02:23, 14 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Let me know if it is any better now. The Transhumanist 03:07, 14 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Definitely it's far better now. Michael Hardy (talk) 05:45, 14 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Rename proposal defeated, three "Outline of" titles restored[edit]

Due to a number of undiscussed moves, a proposal was made to rename outlines to "List of ... topics".

The proposal failed.

Therefore, based on the outcome of that discussion (which lasted from Sept 6 to Oct 12), I'm restoring the title of this article to "Outline of combinatorics". I have waited for that discussion to be completed to revert the undiscussed move of this page that occurred on Sept 6th.

Note that this article has been named "Outline of combinatorics" since July 11, 2009, when the mostly alphabetized List of combinatoric topics was split into Index of combinatorics articles and this page (via rename).

Recently, there were a number of mathematics-related lists renamed to outlines by a new editor who rampaged through several departments. Outline of combinatorics was not one of the pages he renamed. See Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Mathematics/Archive/2011/Sep#Undiscussed List -> Outline moves.

Apparently during the repair of that mass move, 3 outlines were named to "List of" that were not part of that mass move. This outline was one of the 3.

Sincerely, The Transhumanist 03:27, 21 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

See comments at Talk:Outline of arithmetic#Outlines versus bare lists. Jowa fan (talk) 07:09, 21 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

"Essence" of combinatorics?[edit]

What is an essence and how does one decide which combinatorial topics are essences? If essence just means essential, then I don't see how greedoid theory is essential to combinatorics in a way that graph theory is not. --Mark viking (talk) 19:08, 21 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

You raise a good point. There is something about this "essence" that smells! (Sorry, I couldn't resist :^)) The topics listed are not essential or even core parts of combinatorics. Ramsey theory isn't even mentioned on the main combinatorics page (a situation which should be rectified.) Unless someone can come up with a reason not to, I would suggest incorporating these topics in the list and removing the section. Bill Cherowitzo (talk) 23:34, 21 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

This sounds like a good solution to me. --Mark viking (talk) 23:48, 21 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Quick explanation of Wikipedia outlines[edit]

"Outline" is short for "hierarchical outline". There are two types of outlines: sentence outlines (like those you made in school to plan a paper), and topic outlines (like the topical synopses that professors hand out at the beginning of a college course). Outlines on Wikipedia are primarily topic outlines that serve 2 main purposes: they provide taxonomical classification of subjects showing what topics belong to a subject and how they are related to each other (via their placement in the tree structure), and as subject-based tables of contents linked to topics in the encyclopedia. The hierarchy is maintained through the use of heading levels and indented bullets. See Wikipedia:Outlines for a more in-depth explanation. The Transhumanist 00:04, 9 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]