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> This post was inspired by another post about exactly the same thing. I couldn't find it when I looked for it, so I wrote this. All credit to the original auth
by nasso_dev 2y ago
> This post was inspired by another post about exactly the same thing. I couldn't find it when I looked for it, so I wrote this. All credit to the original author for noticing how interesting this rabbit hole is.
I think the author may be thinking of Ken Thompson's Turing Award lecture "Reflections on Trusting Trust".
- Karellen 2y agoAlthough that presentation does point out that the technique is more generally used in quines. Given that there is a fair amount of research, papers and commentary on quines, it's possible that the author may have read something along those lines. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quine_(computing) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quine_(computing)
- ktm5j 2y agoI totally missed that bit when the OP, but it definitely made me think of that paper so maybe.
- yen223 2y agoI don't think so. I too recall seeing a post about this exact piece of trivia ('\n' in rust) years ago, but I couldn't find the source anymore.
- yuchi 2y agoAlso have a read of this fabulous short web from 2009: https://www.teamten.com/lawrence/writings/coding-machines/ https://www.teamten.com/lawrence/writings/coding-machines/