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From: Ben Bacarisse <ben@bsb.me.uk>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Writing own source disk
Date: Mon, 03 Jun 2024 12:58:08 +0100
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bart <bc@freeuk.com> writes:

> On 03/06/2024 10:31, Ben Bacarisse wrote:
>> bart <bc@freeuk.com> writes:
>> 
>>> On 02/06/2024 23:17, Ben Bacarisse wrote:
>>>> Malcolm McLean <malcolm.arthur.mclean@gmail.com> writes:
>>>>
>>>>> Writing a prgram which writes its own source to standard output is a
>>>>> standard programming problem. It's called a quine.
>>>> A quine must also not process any input.
>>>
>>> No input at compile-time or runtime?
>> The program isn't running at compile time.
>> 
>>> A compiler necessarily has to have the source code of the program as input,
>>> so what are the limitations?
>> The compiler can do what it likes!
>> 
>>> A C program can use #include; does that extend
>>> to directives like #embed, or is that considered cheating?
>> There's nothing wrong with using either, but a C quine that uses #embed
>> relies on knowing the name of the file in which it is stored.
>
> I assume you can use __FILE__ with #embed? (I can do that with my version
> of it).
>
> Then it doesn't need to know the actual name of the file.

I don't know if that is guaranteed by the standard as I've not really
looked at C23, but if is it, that would be a way to write a (rather
boring) quine in C23.

>>  It is a
>> "fixed point of the execution environment", but it's probably the least
>> interesting C quine possible -- much like
>>    1
>> is a quine in languages that evaluate and print an expression.
>
> Not really.

What part are you objecting to?  That the above (a C quine using #embed)
in not a fixed point of the execution environment?  That it's not an
uninteresting quine?  Or that it's not "much like" self-evaluating
expression quines?

You said "not really" in reply to a moderately complex paragraph.

> I've just added this line:
>
>   puts(strinclude(__FILE__));

I think I'm missing your point.  That does input at run-time (if my
guess about strinclude is correct).

-- 
Ben.