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From: Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: SAFEcode
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 2015 08:08:07 -0700
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Malcolm McLean <malcolm.mclean5@btinternet.com> writes:
[...]
> It's really very basic.
> If I say "we're trying to minimise a function we know nothing about",
> and you interpret "nothing" in the most literal way possible, then
> there's an infinite number of possible functions, and you're left with
> some rarefied branch of set theory.
[...]

It might have helped if you had defined what it means to "minimise" a
function.  (One possible meaning is "belittle"; I can certainly do
that.)

You've presented functions that can return -1, 0, or 1, and discussed
finding an argument for which they return 0.  If that's what you mean by
"minimise", you need to be a *lot* clearer in your descriptions.

-- 
Keith Thompson (The_Other_Keith) kst-u@mib.org  <http://www.ghoti.net/~kst>
Working, but not speaking, for JetHead Development, Inc.
"We must do something.  This is something.  Therefore, we must do this."
    -- Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn, "Yes Minister"