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From: prins@speedy.WISC.EDU (Jan Prins)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc
Subject: Re: Problems needed! (self-repl programs)
Message-ID: <3763@spool.WISC.EDU>
Date: Sun, 28-Jun-87 15:19:19 EDT
Article-I.D.: spool.3763
Posted: Sun Jun 28 15:19:19 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 28-Jun-87 19:37:46 EDT
References: <9819@duke.cs.duke.edu> <6835@beta.UUCP>
Sender: news@spool.WISC.EDU
Reply-To: prins@boursin.WISC.EDU (Jan Prins)
Organization: U of Wisconsin CS Dept
Lines: 19

In article <6835@beta.UUCP> hwe@beta.UUCP (Skip Egdorf) writes:
>For those who have not run into it, this problem is to write a program
>that, when run, prints its original text on its output.
>  [...]
>The problem is most easily done in C and Lisp (ok, my opinion.) and is doable
>in most others. 

The APL expression
 
      1

returns itself as a result.  In APL it is the shortest self-replicating 
expression and also the narrowest!

I agree with the observation that the value of this exercise to the 
comparative study of programming languages is mostly limited to their
syntax.

Jan