Constructive finite free resolutions

Northcott’s book Finite Free Resolutions (1976), as well as the paper (J. Reine Angew. Math. 262/263:205–219, 1973), present some key results of Buchsbaum and Eisenbud (J. Algebra 25:259–268, 1973; Adv. Math. 12: 84–139, 1974) both in a simplified way and without Noetherian hypotheses, using the notion of latent nonzero divisor introduced by Hochster. The goal of this paper is to simplify further the proofs of these results, which become now elementary in a logical sense (no use of prime ideals, or minimal prime ideals) and, we hope, more perspicuous. Some formulations are new and more general than in the references (J. Algebra 25:259–268, 1973; Adv. Math. 12: 84–139, 1974; Finite Free Resolutions 1976) (Theorem 7.2, Lemma 8.2 and Corollary 8.5).