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by gliese1337 3844 days ago
Many years ago, I attempted to cheat this way when writing a JScript quine- but it didn't work because the Windows Scripting Host keeps the source file open while interpreting it, which meant the script couldn't open its own source file because the file was already open in another program!

A proper quine, though, doesn't require input.

1 comments

A multiquine does require you to give input in order to determine what language to output. Although it will output the current file if no input is giving. More info @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quine_(computing)#Multiquines
The definition of a multiquine specifically disallows passing in source code as input, though. The input to a multiquine is strictly for selecting which sub-quine to run, or which output set to calculate, and is not used in any way to influence the calculation of the selected output.