Below are two textboxes. The one on the left is for input, and the one on the right displays output.
The goal here is to write a series of commands on the left that results in output matching exactly what's on the left.
In the world of programming, such a series of commands is called a quine
The commands available to you are:
In both commands, M is a whole number (e.g. 0, 1, 2, ...)
In the repeat command, N is a natural number (e.g. 1, 2, 3, ...)
Yes, such a quine is possible, and no, I won't tell you what it is. Only one command per line, please.
The set of print/repeat commands is based on the LZ77 decompression scheme used in ZIP file decompression. Basically, all ZIP files consist of opcodes that represent these commands, and because a quine exists for them, it's possible to create a ZIP file that unzips to itself. Cool beans.
I came across a puzzle just like this years ago, but couldn't find it again. I thought it was too cool of a puzzle to be lost to the aether, and so here we are!
For those interested in learning more about this quine, here are a couple blog posts on the topic:
The source for this page is on Github at wgreenberg/quine.zip.
The colorscheme for this page is based on Ethan Schoonover's awesome Solarized palette which is licensed under the MIT License.