Generate Programs in Increasing size

Question

In this challenge, you will write a program which outputs a program which is the double the length of the original program. The outputted program should output a new program a program double its length.

Examples

If my program is a:

< a
> aa

< aa
> aaaa

< aaaa
> aaaaaaaa

Rules

• No quine built-ins
• The original program must be at least one byte
• The sequence should theoretically work infinitely
• Your program is not allowed to read from anything (file, stdio)

Your score is the size of the original program.

Answer 1

CJam, 10 bytes

{"_~"+_}_~

Test it here.

Explanation

{"_~" e# Generalised quine framework, leaves the block and the string "_~"
      e# on the stack. 
+     e# Prepend the block to the string.
_     e# Duplicate the resulting array.
}_~

Answer 2

JavaScript, 62 61 37 bytes

Thanks to @Doᴡɴɢᴏᴀᴛ for the help!

---

Original [37 bytes]:

f=_=>'f='+'_'.repeat((10+f).length)+f

Child [74 bytes]:

f=______________________________________=>'f='+'_'.repeat((10+f).length)+f

Grandchild [148 bytes]:

f=________________________________________________________________________________________________________________=>'f='+'_'.repeat((10+f).length)+f

---

Alternate (with printing to console, and as a full program):

Original [61 bytes]:

f=_=>console.log(`f=${'_'.repeat((0+f).length+5)+f};f()`);f()

Child [122 bytes]:

f=______________________________________________________________=>console.log(`f=${'_'.repeat((0+f).length+5)+f};f()`);f()

Grandchild [244 bytes]:

f=________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________=>console.log(`f=${'_'.repeat((0+f).length+5)+f};f()`);f()

---

How it works!

1.   f=_=>   Define function f as console.log(...)

2.   ;f()   Run function f.

3.   (in function f)  

• console.log(...)   Print the following:

  • f=   literal text "f="
  • ${'_'.repeat((0+f).length+5)   "_" repeated for the length of f, altered to account for characters not included in the stringification of f
  • +f}   The stringification of function f
  • ;f()   literal text ";f()"

Notes

• console.log is necessary instead of alert because alert doesn't seem to play well with really long strings (at least on my machine/browser configuration)
• The _'s are inserted into the name of the (unused) parameter of function f, to ensure that they are included in the stringification of f.
• Main improvement (aside from getting rid of the console.log) of the first solution over the second: adding 10 to the function instead of 0 to cast it to string makes it one byte longer, eliminating the need to add 1 to the length afterwards, saving a byte.

Answer 3

Minkolang 0.15, 19 14 bytes

"66*2-rIDdr$O.

Original, child, grandchild.

Explanation

"66*2-      $O.    Standard quine formulation

      r            Reverse stack
       I           Push length of stack
        D          Pop n and duplicate top of stack n times
         d         Duplicate top of stack
          r        Reverse stack

What the bit in between rs does is duplicate the ending period enough times to fulfill the doubling criterion. . is the "stop program" character, so the many periods at the end do nothing except be there.

Answer 4

CJam, 12 bytes

{"_~"1$1$}_~

When run, this will print

{"_~"1$1$}_~{"_~"1$1$}_~

which, in turn, will print

{"_~"1$1$}_~{"_~"1$1$}_~{"_~"1$1$}_~{"_~"1$1$}_~

and so on.

Try it online!

Answer 5

Python 3, 51 bytes

x=r"print('x=r\"'+x+'\"'+';exec(x*2)');";exec(x*2)

This includes a trailing newline.

Which outputs:

x=r"print('x=r\"'+x+'\"'+';exec(x*2)');";exec(x*2)
x=r"print('x=r\"'+x+'\"'+';exec(x*2)');";exec(x*2)

Answer 6

GolfScript, 11 bytes

{: ".~"]}.~

Try it online!

How the source code works

{: ".~"]}.~

{       }    Define and push a code block.
         .~  Push a copy and execute it.
 :           Save the code block in the space character.
             Every subsequent space will now execute the code block.
   ".~"      Push that string.
       ]     Wrap the entire stack in an array.

If the above source code is executed once, the stack will end up as

["" {: ".~"]} ".~"]

where the empty string at the beginning corresponds to the initial state of the stack (empty input).

Two copies of the source code would leave a final state of

[["" {: ".~"]} ".~"] {: ".~"]} ".~"]

and so on.

What happens next

After executing the source code, the interpreter does the following:

1. It wraps the entire stack in an array, and pushes that array on the stack.

   For a single copy of the source code, the stack now contains

   ["" {: ".~"]} ".~"] [["" {: ".~"]} ".~"]]
   

2. It executed puts with the intention of printing the wrapped stack, followed by a linefeed.

   puts is defined as {print n print}, so it does the following.

   1. print prints the wrapped up copy of the stack without inspecting it (i.e., without converting it to its string representation). This sends

      {: ".~"]}.~
      

      to STDOUT and pops the stack copy from the top of the stack.

      The stack now contains

      ["" {: ".~"]} ".~"]
      

   2. executes the code block we defined previously.

      : begins by saving ["" {: ".~"]} ".~"] in the space character, then ".~" pushes itself and ] wraps the stack in an array.

   3. n pushes a string consisting of a single linefeed.

      The stack now contains

      [["" {: ".~"]} ".~"] ".~"] "\n"
      

   4. is executed once more. However, it was redefined when we called it for the first time and now contains an array, not a code block.

      In fact, it pushes ["" {: ".~"]} ".~"], leaving the stack as

      [["" {: ".~"]} ".~"] ".~"] "\n" ["" {: ".~"]} ".~"]
      

   5. Finally, print prints the topmost stack item without inspecting it, sending

      {: ".~"]}.~
      

      to STDOUT.

Answer 7

𝔼𝕊𝕄𝕚𝕟, 26 chars / 36 bytes

⟮ô`\u27ee⦃ᶈ0}\u27ef
`ď2)⟯

Try it here (Firefox only).

Note that there is a trailing newline.

Explanation

Standard quine: ⟮ⒸⅩ222+ᶈ0

Modifications:

• Use ô function to output the quines all results instead last result (as done using implicit output)
• Use \u27ee⦃ᶈ0}\u27ef\n and close copy block to prevent conflicts with later copy blocks.
• Use ď2 to repeat string twice.