Editing Quine (computing) (section)

==History==

[[John von Neumann]] theorized about [[Von Neumann universal constructor|self-reproducing automata]] in the 1940s. Later, Paul Bratley and Jean Millo's article "Computer Recreations: Self-Reproducing Automata" discussed them in 1972.<ref name="Bratley_Millo">{{cite journal | last1 = Bratley
  | first1 = Paul
  | author-link1 = Paul Bratley
  | last2 = Millo
  | first2 = Jean
  | title = Computer Recreations: Self-Reproducing Automata
  | journal = Software: Practice and Experience
  | volume = 2
  | issue = 4
  | year = 1972
  | pages = 397–400
 | doi=10.1002/spe.4380020411
| s2cid = 222194376
 }}</ref>
Bratley first became interested in self-reproducing programs after seeing the first known such program written in [[Atlas Autocode]] at Edinburgh in the 1960s by the [[University of Edinburgh]] lecturer and researcher [[Hamish Dewar]].

The "download source" requirement of the [[GNU Affero General Public License]] is based on the idea of a quine.<ref name="Stet_and_AGPLV3">{{cite web
  | url         = http://www.softwarefreedom.org/technology/blog/2007/nov/21/stet-and-agplv3/
  | title       = stet and AGPLv3
  | access-date = June 14, 2008
  | last        = Kuhn
  | first       = Bradley M.
  | author-link = Bradley M. Kuhn
  | date        = November 21, 2007
  | publisher   = Software Freedom Law Center
  | archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20080315231323/http://www.softwarefreedom.org/technology/blog/2007/nov/21/stet-and-agplv3/
  | archive-date = March 15, 2008
  | url-status   = dead
  }}</ref>