by Lee Larson (LLarson@Louisville.edu) 10-Oct-98
As the list mom for the real analysis list, I get many questions about the list by private email. (In fact, I get many more questions by private email than messages posted to the list itself!) This is my attempt to answer some of them before they are sent. Below is general information about things related to the real analysis list, as well as some information of interest to the real analysis community. I plan to keep this information up to date, and I will periodically post the latest copy of this message to the list. In addition, a recent version is always available at the WWW address
http://www.math.louisville.edu/~lee/realanalysislist/FAQ.html
If there is anything not included below which you feel should be included, tell me about it.
To make it easy to find the answers, I have listed the questions at the top of the file and the answers below. To find the answer to question (nn), just search the file for the string [nn].
The questions which are new, or have answers differing from the last are marked with a * preceding the number.
(01) How do I post a message?
*(02) How do I remove myself from the list?
(03) What topics are appropriate for this list?
(04) Why am I not receiving messages from the list?
(05) How do I subscribe?
(06) How do I get the LaTeX style files for the Real Analysis Exchange?
*(07) What conferences are coming up?
*(08) What other mathematical resources are available on the Internet?
[01] How do I post a message?
To post a message to the real analysis discussion group, just send an ordinary email message to real-analysis@ams.org. This message will be automatically distributed to all 300+ subscribers. Only subscribers are allowed to post messages, so be sure to send the message from the same email address you use to receive messages from the list. If the return address on the message is not in the subscriber list, the message will be rejected.
An interesting fact is that I get many more messages asking me how to post to the list than actual messages which appear on the list.
[02] How do I unsubscribe?
Send email containing only the one line in the body
unsubscribe real-analysis your_email_address
to the address Majordomo@ams.org, where "your_email_address" is the address at which you receive real-analysis list messages. Make sure your mailer does not automatically append anything else to the message. You should get an acknowledgement from the Majordomo software a short time after you unsubscribe. If this acknowledgement does not appear, something went wrong. More information about unsubscribe and other commands is available by sending e-mail containing the single word "help" to Majordomo@ams.org.
[03] What topics are appropriate for this list?
Anything even peripherally related to real analysis. Some of the topics which have appeared are questions about finding references, open problems, conference announcements, opinions on textbooks and historical comments. You can think of this list as a way to tap into a massive reservoir of knowledge accumulated by over 300 people from all over the planet who are interested in real analysis. There's unlikely to be a topic about which everybody knows nothing. (Finding one could be the most difficult open real analysis question.)
When you answer a posted question, it is generally considered good "nettiquette" to stay "above ground" with your answer. By this I mean, don't send your reply only to the person who asked the question, but, rather, reply to the list as a whole. The reason for this is that there may be many other people who are interested in the answer, or who may be able to expand upon your comments.
It seems that many people, especially those new to the Internet world are quite nervous about posting to lists such as this. It's really pretty hard to do anything wrong, so my advice is to just jump in and do it!
[04] Why am I not receiving messages from the list?
The most likely reason is that no messages have been posted to the list recently. If you received the acknowledgement messages that are automatically sent after a subscription request, then it's very unlikely there is a problem. The real analyis list is a low volume list which has been averaging about twenty messages per month, and those messages seem to appear in spurts, usually started by a question or comment which has been posted recently.
[05] How do I subscribe?
Send an email message to the address Majordomo@ams.org containing only the single line in its body
subscribe real-analysis
You should get an acknowledgement from the Majordomo software a short time after you subscribe. If this acknowledgement does not appear, something went wrong. More information about subscribe and other commands is available by sending e-mail containing the single word "help" to Majordomo@ams.org.
[06] How do I get the LaTeX style files for the Real Analysis Exchange?
Send me (lmlars01@homer.louisville.edu) an email message asking for them, or get them yourself at any of the following addresses
http://www.louisville.edu/~lmlars01/index.html ftp://ftp.louisville.edu/pub/math/rae/
There are two versions of the style file, depending upon whether you are using the old LaTeX 2.09, or its replacement, LaTeX2e. The LaTeX 2.09 version is called rae.sty. The LaTeX2e version is called rae.cls. The documentation file, which works with either version, is called raedoc.tex. The final version of rae.sty was done on 4-MAY-93, and the current version of rae.cls is 11-NOV-97. We will continue to improve rae.cls to support modern LaTeX. The version for the obsolete LaTeX 2.09 will no longer be updated or supported.
[07] What conferences are coming up?
Fall 1998, Mini-Conference on Harmonic Analysis, Auburn, Alabama, USA
Contact: Geraldo deSouza <desougs@mail.auburn.edu>
Spring 1999, Mini-Conference on Real Analysis, Auburn, Alabama, USA
Contact: Jack Brown <brownj4@mail.auburn.edu>
Summer 1999 23rd Summer Symposium in Real Analysis Lodz, Poland
Contact: W. Wilczynski (wwil%PLUNLO51.BITNET@SEARN.SUNET.SE)
[08] What other mathematical resources are available on the Internet?
The most extensive general source of mathematically related materials is probably the mathematics page of the World Wide Web Virtual Library at Florida State University. Its URL is:
<http://euclid.math.fsu.edu/Science/math.html>
Another source aiming for completeness is the Mathematics Archives WWW server located in Knoxville, Tennessee
<http://archives.math.utk.edu/>
On these servers you will find pointers to thousands of other mathematics servers all over the world. To use them, you will need access to a computer on the Internet running a WWW browser such as Mosaic, Netscape, or, if you must, Lynx.
My favorite site at the moment is "The Fractal Movie Archive":
<http://www.cnam.fr/fractals/anim.html>
The suggestions given above are far from a complete list. Hundreds of
mathematics departments around the world have their own WWW or gopher servers,
and more are being added all the time. There are several dozen mathematical
journals being distributed electronically and many other listserv groups
such as this one. The best way to find out what's available is to get into
one of the servers listed above and start "surfing the net."