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Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!mcnc!unc!bts
From: bts@unc.UUCP (Bruce Smith)
Newsgroups: net.math
Subject: Re: What is ADJ?
Message-ID: <6788@unc.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 19-Feb-84 22:28:52 EST
Article-I.D.: unc.6788
Posted: Sun Feb 19 22:28:52 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 21-Feb-84 03:43:45 EST
References: <4916@rochester.UUCP>
Organization: CS Dept., U. of N. Carolina at Chapel Hill
Lines: 48

Strange are the ways the networks function--  when they do at all,
that is.  I passed the question along to Don Stanat, a theoretician
on our faculty, and he passed it along a bit further...  Well, here
is an answer, come back along the same path:

D   From:     Don Stanat 
S   Subject:  a question
t   To:       bts@unc
a
n   I've long since lost the address of the person who asked the question,
a   but here is the answer.  Would you be so kind as to pass it along to
t   him?

J     From: Jim Thatcher
i     Subject: Why should the world wonder
m     To: stanat.unc@csnet-relay
T     
h     I don't think I can get into the rochester ARPA node - more precisely,
a     I have no idea how to do it. Beyond that a previous note to you was
t     returned to me. If this gets through, please acknowledge and pass on
c     the useless information.
h      
e     Goguen, Thatcher, Wagner and Wright began working together at IBM in 1973
r     on algebraic methods in computer science. Thrilled with what they found
-     there they were writing a paper on factorizations which was neat. But
J     they decided they needed an introduction to Category Theory for Computer
i     Scientists for that paper. That introduction expanded to a report and
m     ultimately to a series of seven reports. Then the first of the planned
T     seven reports itself expanded into three parts of which exactly two
h     were written. The never finished seried was called "A Junction Between
a     Category Theory and Computer Science: N, Part J" where 1<=N<=7 and
t     1<=J<=3. "A Junction ... " was a weak play on the key word
c     "adjunction" of categorical algebra and around IBM at the time they
h     referred to the series of papers as the ADJ series. One of the reasons
e     that less than 1/7 of the series was ever completed was that the
r     authors started writing papers based on what they found working
-     on the magnum opus (Initial Algebra Semantics ..., Rational Algebraic
J     Theories ..., ...). These received quite a good response and some
i     of the authors (lower in the alphabet) started getting tired of being
m     referred to as "et. al." in the context of Goguen, et. al. So they
T     started mixing up authors names in publications and so as to
a     have the relevant publications in a bunch, referring to them as
t     ADJ. And that's where it started.
c      
h     The source is now forgotten (thank goodness), but a simpler explanation
e     was offered -- A Dumb Joke!
r      
-     Jim