What is the point of a quine program?

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I just recently learned about Quine programs today in my CS class. I understand that they are programs meant to output there own source code, or "self-reproduce". But what I don't get is, besides being a good test of coding ability and logic, whats the point? Can these types of programs be used in real life situations or are they simply for fun?

Are they applicable to the real word?

What I have tried:

Asking on Stack Overflow...and everyone was a jerk about it. I'm genuinely interested.

Posted 3-Nov-16 8:08am

mooseman55

Updated 3-Nov-16 9:48am

Matthew Dennis

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[no name] 3-Nov-16 14:15pm

Never seen or had the occasion to know of anyone using such a thing outside of a programming class.

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Rick York · Answer 1 · 2016-11-03T09:48:00

As far as I know they are useful in real life applications only rarely. I can envision a scenario where you have a code generating app that compiles on the fly. It would be useful to include a module by invoking it and having it write its output that can then be compiled into a stand-alone executable module.

Admittedly, this is a very contrived, theoretical example because that's the only possible use I can think of for them beyond fun and games.

Richard MacCutchan · Answer 2 · 2016-11-03T08:14:00

Solution 1

Google is the best place for such questions: Quine programs - Google Search[^].

Posted 3-Nov-16 8:14am

Richard MacCutchan

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mooseman55 3-Nov-16 14:16pm

I mean I understand them and how they work, I'm just looking for real life examples.

Richard MacCutchan 3-Nov-16 14:18pm

Yes, and Google has lots of them.