Orientation of a boundary manifold This is a minor point, but worth note: - there are a priori 4 natural choices for how to orient a boundary manifold: extend the orientation on the boundary via inner/outer pointing normal, either at the end or start (last/first). This is actually a (torsor for the) vier-group of possibilities, and the orientations change via: -1 (out/in) (-1)^n (last/first: switch sign for odd, but not even) [yes, it's a canonically split vier-group] The correct orientation is the one that makes Stoke's theorem work; (as "d" is natural, and this is adjoint) I believe that this is outer normal last. Actually, be very very careful: when taking the dual of a chain complex, there's the question of how to dualize the map: some may want to add in an alternating sign. [The more naive answer is: inward normal last, so the upper half-plane (and half-space) induce the natural orientation on the line, but this is rather lame]