Four responses to query about point-set tpopology texts...DMD ______________________________________ Subject: Re: topology text Date: Mon, 02 Apr 2001 14:53:43 -0500 From: "Martin C. Tangora" Well, I'm writing one, because I'm not satisfied with any of the existing books. But if you use mine in Fall 2001, you'll be using it from copier copies. One semester? Any special topics? Wilson Sutherland's book is very intelligently done, but very short and therefore somewhat incomplete. >Subject: Undergrad topology text >Date: Mon, 2 Apr 2001 13:13:44 -0400 (EDT) >From: "Douglas C. Ravenel" > >I am looking for a textbook for an undergraduate course on point >set topology. Any suggestions? ____________________________________________ Subject: Re: topology text Date: Mon, 02 Apr 2001 15:58:51 -0400 From: William Browder I like Munkres: Topology, which has lots of point set topology as well as a good treatment of the fundamental group at the end. Very well written, and the 2nd edition is better than the first. Bill ______________________________________ Subject: Re: topology text Date: Mon, 2 Apr 2001 17:08:19 -0500 (CDT) From: Brayton Gray Wilson Sutherland has a good book on this subject that we have been using for several years entitled Introduction to Metric and Topological Spaces(Oxford press) Brayton Gray Math Department UIC ___________________________________________ Subject: Re: topology text Date: Mon, 2 Apr 2001 20:49:44 PST From: Kevin Iga When I was an undergrad, 10 years ago, before I took topology, I got the text for the course: "Topology" by James Munkres. I read parts of it on my own and enjoyed it, before actually taking the class, and while I took the class it was a helpful text. It covers standard topics like separation axioms, connectedness and compactness, compactifications, and such, using a small collection of useful counterexamples. The preliminary chapter covers some ideas of set theory that probably wouldn't be taught anywhere else, but are indispensable to mathematicians (like the well-ordering principle, and basic ideas about general functions). There's now a second edition that has added topics including dimension theory and some homotopy theory (fundamental group, etc.). This new material allows the text to be used for a full year-long course if desired. A supplementary book might be "Counterexamples in Topology" by Steen and Seebach (published by Dover these days). Another option (cheap because it's Dover) is "Elements of the Topology of plane sets of points" by M. H. A. Newman. The title says it all. This has more of an analysis flavor because it sometimes uses metrics. There's also "Topology" by Hocking and Young, which is also Dover, but I don't like the organization as much. Kevin Iga