Talk:Algebraic decidability of local classification problems

The references here use a style a little different to elsewhere: could I suggest that "[Ar70a] Arnold, V. I. Local problems ..." be changed to "[Ar1] V.I. Arnold, Local problems ..." etc., to preserve consistency. --Jjg 12:28, 28 April 2012 (CEST)

I would do that if there were any chance to ensure indeed the uniformity/consistence of the referencing style. Alas, we have no [Wiki reference templates] that would keep a chance that one day everything will look uniform... Till then there will be always subtle differences: e.g. Last F. N. or F. N. Last? Italicize what part of the reference? Include ISBN or doi? Boldface volume? etc. Even MathSciNet produces references which differ in appearance, whether you select ASCII or other "text" formats. Sergei Yakovenko 13:23, 28 April 2012 (CEST)

This was just a suggestion, which is why I put it on the talk page rather than just making the edit. While I agree that proper solution to this would be some kind of template, I'd expect that to take some time. Until it is done I would have thought that sticking to the (rather ugly) format used in the original text would be a good idea, if only because when a template does become available, it will be much easier for a script to autoconvert references if they all use same format. --Jjg 17:45, 28 April 2012 (CEST)

I would even go further and think about creation of (annotated) bibliography lists containing the most fundamental textbooks/monographs in specific areas. Besides helping the readers to orient themselves in the sea of books, it could eventually be used via some sort of bibtex-like scripts which would make obsolete copying the same references from page to page manually. --Sergei Yakovenko 08:20, 29 April 2012 (CEST)

I think Boris's approach (see, eg the bib entry for Feller in the Laplace theorem article) is a great move in this direction. I'd like to see it go further, could we include the "publisher's schpiel" (with appropriate permissions of course) in these entries, images of the covers, perhaps a "Basic text" or "Famous text" tag to get a list of them,.... --Jjg 12:06, 29 April 2012 (CEST)