Talk:Geometric topology (object)

needs a better name

[The following remarks date from when the article was entitled Geometric topology (object) or previous names. The name has been changed; let the people decide. Zaslav 08:23, 25 August 2007 (UTC)][reply]

The name "Geometric topology (topology)" looks really strange; what field would geometric topology be part of, other than topology? Presumably the intent is to emphasize that we're talking about a topology rather than the discipline of topology, but that doesn't really come across. (This is not the first occurrence of this problem; it would be nice to have an article about topologies as mathematical objects as opposed to topology as the field, but there's really no good name for it).

How about Geometric topology (3-manifolds) or some such? --Trovatore 18:45, 21 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I knew someone would complain about the name :-) I don't like Geometric topology (3-manifolds) because it falls prey to the same kind of confusion, where it's not clear that the word "topology" refers to a collection of open sets satisfying certain axioms. The problem is that 3-manifolds and 4-manifolds is fairly synonymous with geometric topology nowadays. Geometric topology (space) may be better for that reason. Or Geometric topology (open sets). On the other hand, further thought on this only has convinced me further that despite the inital awkwardness of the name, Geometric topology (topology) has a lot going for it. --C S (Talk) 07:42, 22 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

What about geometric topology (object)? After thinking about it the best name I could come up with for an article about topologies is topology (object). The current procedure of piping all such links to topological space is not all that good; a topology is a structure defined on a space, not the space itself. Sometimes you want to keep the space fixed and vary the topology (which would be a good subject matter for the article). --Trovatore 14:59, 22 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

"object" is fine. Actually, note that the disambig page I created mentions there is another topology on the same set called the algebraic topology (topology); that deserves its own article. So point taken! --C S (Talk) 19:02, 22 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

My H.O. being that, grammatically, the correct names are "The geometric/algebraic topology", I have made the changes. Any opinion? Zaslav 08:23, 25 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

"The" is discouraged in article titles unless part of a proper name such as The Hague. See WP:MOS. I don't see anything wrong with the "object" formulation and would prefer to move it back. If you don't like that name, please say why, and we can perhaps find some mutually acceptable version.

One of the things I like about "object" is that it generalizes rather nicely. I've thought for some time that there should be a topology (object) article. Currently uses of the word "topology" meaning the object rather than the field of study are generally piped to topological space, which isn't quite right (you can consider different topologies on the same space). --Trovatore 19:43, 25 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]