dr-quine

An exploration of self-reproducing programs. The project consists of three programs — each with increasingly complex self-replication behavior — all implemented in both C and x86-64 Assembly.

The Three Programs

  • Colleen — a classic quine: when executed, prints its own source code exactly to stdout. No file I/O, no reading from argv.
  • Grace — writes its own source code into a new file (Grace_kid.c / Grace_kid.s). The C version has no declared main — the program runs entirely through macros.
  • Sully — a self-replicating chain: writes a modified copy of itself with a decremented integer, compiles it, and runs it. Repeats until the counter reaches -1.

Tech Stack

  • C — macros, format string tricks, self-referential source encoding
  • x86-64 Assembly (NASM) — all three programs also implemented at the instruction level