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From: gwyn@smoke.BRL.MIL (Doug Gwyn )
Newsgroups: comp.std.c
Subject: Re: Portable Self-Replicating C Contest
Message-ID: <9929@smoke.BRL.MIL>
Date: 27 Mar 89 03:04:13 GMT
References: <2179@fireball.cs.vu.nl> <2976@goofy.megatest.UUCP> <12144@haddock.ima.isc.com> <1417@sw1e.UUCP>
Reply-To: gwyn@brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn (VLD/VMB) <gwyn>)
Organization: Ballistic Research Lab (BRL), APG, MD.
Lines: 9

In article <1417@sw1e.UUCP> uucibg@sw1e.UUCP (Brian Gilstrap [5-3929]) writes:
>It seems that it would be impossible to create a program which generates it's
>source as output because you have a self-referential system and will end up
>with an infinite recursion.

Nope.  If you try to make that line of reasoning precise you'll find
gaps in the logic.  In fact self-replicating systems can be quite small.
Self-reference need not imply infinite recursion, and self-replication
need not imply self-reference.