Re: Suggested method for returning a string from a C program?

Muttley@DastardlyHQ.org writes:

On Sat, 22 Mar 2025 15:05:43 +1100
Alexis <flexibeast@gmail.com> wibbled:

Muttley@DastardlyHQ.org writes:
>

But 99.99% of the time doesn't.

>
Famously, mathematician G.H. Hardy was a fan of number theory _because_
it seemed to have no 'real world' applications (i.e. applications
outside of mathematics itself). Eventually, of course, it became the
theoretical basis of public-key cryptography.

>
Maths is the foundation of most technology, that doesn't mean all its
problems are useful. I could ponder balancing wheels on top of each other
but that wouldn't lead to the invention of the car.

Well done - you read the first paragraph of my post. You might like to
now consider engaging with the rest of my post, in which i wrote in
part:

This is actually a common historical pattern - mathematics that
doesn't immediately appear to have any 'real world' applications
eventually finds such uses
>
[...]
>
In fact, i would suggest that it's increasingly difficult to find
non-recent mathematics that _hasn't_ found direct or non-direct 'real
world' applications.
>
i say "direct or non-direct", because even though proving or
disproving certain conjectures might not have any immediate impact[b],
problems that have been particularly resistant to proofs often require
the development of new mathematical approaches / techniques /
knowledge that either find/s 'real world' uses, or support/s the
development of mathematics which has such uses.

i never _claimed_ the usefulness of _all_ mathematical problems (in the
sense of 'conjectures' / 'hypotheses', rather than e.g. the addition of
three large arbitrary numbers whose sum has never been calculated).
Indeed, i allowed for the possibility of 'useless' problems when i
wrote, as i quoted above,

In fact, i would suggest that it's increasingly difficult to find
non-recent mathematics that _hasn't_ found direct or non-direct
'real world' applications.

Note i didn't write: "it's _impossible_ to find".

Nevertheless, the fact that _there exists_ such mathematics ("balancing
wheels on top of each other") is a long way from "99.99%" of mathematics
being such mathematics. Claiming the latter is analogous to claiming
that the existence of black swans allows one to claim that 99.99% of
swans are black. And even if one's own experience is of only ever
encountering black swans (due to, say, living in Perth.au), that doesn't
mean it's inherently reflective of global swan numbers.

The history of developments in mathematics suggests that your "99.99%"
claim is significantly incorrect. (If you'd said, say, "9.99%", my
internal reaction would have been "Hm, i guess that might be the case.")

All that said, i've lurked long enough in this group to know that trying
to have a good-faith conversation with you is pointless; i was mainly
responding in order to address your claim for other readers. Just
because _you're_ not aware of the 'real world' applications that have
resulted from proving/disproving various mathematical conjectures,
doesn't mean they don't exist. And anyway, all this is OT, so i'm not
going to continue this subthread.


Alexis.