Has anyone constructed a quine ("A program that generates a copy of its own source text as its complete output": http://www.nyx.net/~gthompso/quine.htm) in R? (The [quine] tag pulls up lots of examples in Python, Java, ... but apparently none in R.)
f <- function() { body() }
comes close:
> f()
{
body()
}
but lacks the name of the function.
How about the shortest possibility? Most obfuscated?
edit: from the variety of answers below, it seems that there are a variety of ways to define self-referentiality and the environment in which it must occur:
- within the R environment: function
->function (@bill_080) - within the OS/shell environment: program
->program [more or less equivalent to program->text]: (@kohske) - other: function
->text (@JoshUlrich, @James, problem as defined above)
Notes:
- The thread from R-help pointed out by @Spacedman (which seems to emphasize obfuscation over brevity) suggests that
identical(quine,quine())is a good test case, although it's tricky because environments get carried along:identical(quine,quine(),ignore.environment=TRUE)might be easier. - A recent (Oct 2015) blog post provides another answer ...