Shortest code to produce infinite output

Question

Write the shortest code you can that produces an infinite output.

That's all. You code will only be disqualified if it stops producing output at some point. As always in code golf, the shortest code wins.

Here's a list of answers that I think are really clever, so they can get credit:

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var QUESTION_ID=13152,OVERRIDE_USER=8611;function answersUrl(e){return"https://api.stackexchange.com/2.2/questions/"+QUESTION_ID+"/answers?page="+e+"&pagesize=100&order=desc&sort=creation&site=codegolf&filter="+ANSWER_FILTER}function commentUrl(e,s){return"https://api.stackexchange.com/2.2/answers/"+s.join(";")+"/comments?page="+e+"&pagesize=100&order=desc&sort=creation&site=codegolf&filter="+COMMENT_FILTER}function getAnswers(){jQuery.ajax({url:answersUrl(answer_page++),method:"get",dataType:"jsonp",crossDomain:!0,success:function(e){answers.push.apply(answers,e.items),answers_hash=[],answer_ids=[],e.items.forEach(function(e){e.comments=[];var s=+e.share_link.match(/\d+/);answer_ids.push(s),answers_hash[s]=e}),e.has_more||(more_answers=!1),comment_page=1,getComments()}})}function getComments(){jQuery.ajax({url:commentUrl(comment_page++,answer_ids),method:"get",dataType:"jsonp",crossDomain:!0,success:function(e){e.items.forEach(function(e){e.owner.user_id===OVERRIDE_USER&&answers_hash[e.post_id].comments.push(e)}),e.has_more?getComments():more_answers?getAnswers():process()}})}function getAuthorName(e){return e.owner.display_name}function process(){var e=[];answers.forEach(function(s){var r=s.body;s.comments.forEach(function(e){OVERRIDE_REG.test(e.body)&&(r="<h1>"+e.body.replace(OVERRIDE_REG,"")+"</h1>")});var a=r.match(SCORE_REG);a&&e.push({user:getAuthorName(s),size:+a[2],language:a[1],link:s.share_link})}),e.sort(function(e,s){var r=e.size,a=s.size;return r-a});var s={},r=1,a=null,n=1;e.forEach(function(e){e.size!=a&&(n=r),a=e.size,++r;var t=jQuery("#answer-template").html();t=t.replace("{{PLACE}}",n+".").replace("{{NAME}}",e.user).replace("{{LANGUAGE}}",e.language).replace("{{SIZE}}",e.size).replace("{{LINK}}",e.link),t=jQuery(t),jQuery("#answers").append(t);var o=e.language;/<a/.test(o)&&(o=jQuery(o).text()),s[o]=s[o]||{lang:e.language,user:e.user,size:e.size,link:e.link}});var t=[];for(var o in s)s.hasOwnProperty(o)&&t.push(s[o]);t.sort(function(e,s){return e.lang>s.lang?1:e.lang<s.lang?-1:0});for(var c=0;c<t.length;++c){var i=jQuery("#language-template").html(),o=t[c];i=i.replace("{{LANGUAGE}}",o.lang).replace("{{NAME}}",o.user).replace("{{SIZE}}",o.size).replace("{{LINK}}",o.link),i=jQuery(i),jQuery("#languages").append(i)}}var ANSWER_FILTER="!t)IWYnsLAZle2tQ3KqrVveCRJfxcRLe",COMMENT_FILTER="!)Q2B_A2kjfAiU78X(md6BoYk",answers=[],answers_hash,answer_ids,answer_page=1,more_answers=!0,comment_page;getAnswers();var SCORE_REG=/<h\d>\s*([^\n,]*[^\s,]),.*?(\d+)(?=[^\n\d<>]*(?:<(?:s>[^\n<>]*<\/s>|[^\n<>]+>)[^\n\d<>]*)*<\/h\d>)/,OVERRIDE_REG=/^Override\s*header:\s*/i;

body{text-align:left!important}#answer-list,#language-list{padding:10px;width:290px;float:left}table thead{font-weight:700}table td{padding:5px}

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="//cdn.sstatic.net/codegolf/all.css?v=83c949450c8b"> <div id="answer-list"> <h2>Leaderboard</h2> <table class="answer-list"> <thead> <tr><td></td><td>Author</td><td>Language</td><td>Size</td></tr></thead> <tbody id="answers"> </tbody> </table> </div><div id="language-list"> <h2>Winners by Language</h2> <table class="language-list"> <thead> <tr><td>Language</td><td>User</td><td>Score</td></tr></thead> <tbody id="languages"> </tbody> </table> </div><table style="display: none"> <tbody id="answer-template"> <tr><td>{{PLACE}}</td><td>{{NAME}}</td><td>{{LANGUAGE}}</td><td>{{SIZE}}</td><td><a href="{{LINK}}">Link</a></td></tr></tbody> </table> <table style="display: none"> <tbody id="language-template"> <tr><td>{{LANGUAGE}}</td><td>{{NAME}}</td><td>{{SIZE}}</td><td><a href="{{LINK}}">Link</a></td></tr></tbody> </table>

All answers disqualified because at some point the Earth will be swallowed by the sun, and at some point the universe will die :P — Doorknob
– Doorknob, Commented Nov 9, 2013 at 20:00
If I write mine in Piet, can I count the pixels of the text the other programs used? I believe the smallest possible repeating Piet program would be 6 pixels. That beats Befunge if "off" pixels still count. — DampeS8N
– DampeS8N, Commented Nov 12, 2013 at 20:27
@Izkata So any answer that crashes your computer is also allowed :D — ɐɔıʇǝɥʇuʎs
– ɐɔıʇǝɥʇuʎs, Commented Jul 11, 2014 at 20:11
@Doorknob So really, the challenge is to produce infinite output in a finite amount of time. Sounds easy enough. — Sanchises
– Sanchises, Commented Apr 10, 2015 at 21:15

Community · Accepted Answer · 2020-06-17 09:04:33Z

VBScript, 23 characters

Do:Wscript.Echo"C":Loop

Needs to be run with cscript.exe for command-line output. If run with wscript.exe (default action), it opens infinite dialog boxes.

Also, here's a shorter (17 character) version which opens boxes regardless of whether it's running using cscript.exe or wscript.exe.

Do:MsgBox"C":Loop

However I'm not sure if that counts too, as it doesn't print anything and just opens dialog boxes indefinetely.

Anonymous · Accepted Answer · 2017-10-15 23:34:39Z

GW-Basic, 9 bytes (tokenised)

TRON:RUN

This will output [0] until the cows come home. Actually only 3 bytes are actual tokens; here's the full content of the file:

255 unprotected xxx xxx offset, recalculated on LOAD 0 0 line number 0 162 TRON ':' : 138 RUN 0 line terminator

You can often delete trailing zeroes, but this one was required because when GW-Basic starts up, another value is at the memory location where that zero will get loaded, so without it you'd get a syntax error.

Community · Accepted Answer · 2020-06-17 09:04:33Z

1

Pyth - 2 bytes

#0

Exlanation:

#0 # Loop forever 0 Print 0

edited Jun 17, 2020 at 9:04

CommunityBot

1

answered Dec 11, 2017 at 19:27

Tornado547

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caird coinheringaahing · Accepted Answer · 2017-12-25 01:44:55Z

1

Flipbit, 4 bytes

^[.]

Try it online!

Yay for Bra*nfuck derivatives!

answered Dec 25, 2017 at 1:44

caird coinheringaahing♦

50.9k11 gold badges133 silver badges364 bronze badges

\$\begingroup\$ did you just censor the i in brain? \$\endgroup\$

qqq
– qqq

2018-02-12 16:06:44 +00:00
Commented Feb 12, 2018 at 16:06
\$\begingroup\$ @tfbninja Yes, I did \$\endgroup\$

caird coinheringaahing
– caird coinheringaahing ♦

2018-02-12 16:36:00 +00:00
Commented Feb 12, 2018 at 16:36

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Esolanging Fruit · Accepted Answer · 2018-02-04 23:57:56Z

Dreaderef, 9 8 7 bytes

5?1 1-1

Try it online!

Explanation:

In a more readable form (which can still be fed into the preprocessor), this program is:

numo 0 deref 1 -1

The numo (numeric output) statement does just about what you'd expect: it outputs 0. I could have used chro, but that makes it output unprintables and doesn't affect the byte count.

To understand the second line, you have to know a little bit about Dreaderef:

Programs are loaded into the data space at the beginning of execution.
The pointer to the current instruction is located at position -1.

What deref 1 -1 does is:

Dereferences 1 (takes the value of the cell at index 1). This always returns 0.
Stores the result in cell -1, which is effectively a GOTO to instruction 0.

Dreaderef doesn't have a "load constant" instruction, so the best way to load a constant into a cell is to use some sort of arithmetic instruction or copy it from some other cell with deref, which is what I do here.

Community · Accepted Answer · 2020-06-17 09:04:33Z

1

Forth, 24 bytes

Defines then calls a word that loops forever, pushing and printing <0> each iteration.

: f begin .s 0 until ; f

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With a do-loop (25 bytes):

: f 0 0 do 0 .s +loop ; f

Prints <1> 0 forever.

edited Jun 17, 2020 at 9:04

CommunityBot

1

answered Apr 10, 2015 at 21:07

mbomb007

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\$\begingroup\$ I know this is a bit late, but technically the do loop isn't infinite, as eventually the counter will wrap around and reach 0 again (albeit it will possibly take years depending on speed and implementation). Use : f begin .s 0 until ; instead (plus it saves a byte) \$\endgroup\$

reffu
– reffu

2018-02-12 14:15:28 +00:00
Commented Feb 12, 2018 at 14:15
1

\$\begingroup\$ @reffu That's actually a byte longer. You have to call the function. \$\endgroup\$

mbomb007
– mbomb007

2018-02-12 16:33:51 +00:00
Commented Feb 12, 2018 at 16:33
\$\begingroup\$ good point, I didn't realize this one had slightly different rules than the typical codegolf challenge. \$\endgroup\$

reffu
– reffu

2018-02-12 17:07:04 +00:00
Commented Feb 12, 2018 at 17:07

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Community · Accepted Answer · 2020-06-17 09:04:33Z

1

PHP, 14 bytes

for(;;)echo 0;

try it online

edited Jun 17, 2020 at 9:04

CommunityBot

1

answered Feb 12, 2018 at 21:08

ArtisticPhoenix

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Phlarx · Accepted Answer · 2018-03-29 21:42:39Z

TIS `-n` `1` `1`, 12 bytes

@0 MOV 0 ANY

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Just shoves a bunch of 0\n to the output. On TIO, reached the 128KiB cutoff quite quickly. Without the -n flag, prints null bytes instead.

If you are familiar with TIS-100, you will be used to a 3x4 array of computational nodes, however, this solutions only uses one such node, nominally giving the zeroes downward as output.

The only instruction that send data out of a computational node is MOV, and that requires a source and a destination. the smallest possible source is a single digit number, and the smallest possible destination is UP. However, to produce actual output, the data needs to travel downwards, restricting the choice to either DOWN or ANY.

Bubbler · Accepted Answer · 2018-03-30 07:36:17Z

Gol><>, 1 byte

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D is a command designed for debugging, which prints the entire stack (from bottom to top) between brackets. D on empty stack generates []\n to stdout, and the IP loops through the row endlessly.

Alternative solution, 1 byte

Credits to Jo King

Try it online!

Unlike ><>, Gol><> has infinite zeroes at the bottom of the stack, which allows to print the top without pushing anything. Any of Nno will do; N prints 0\n, n prints 0, and o prints null bytes.

Alternatively, there are many 2-byte solutions:

One of 0-9a-f, l, or m followed by one of NnoD; Try it online!
- Any of 0-9a-f pushes a hexadecimal digit to the stack, l pushes the current stack size, and m pushes -1.
- N prints the top as number with newline, n is the same without newline, and o prints as a char.
S"; Try it online!
- Initially S" is interpreted as one command which prints the encountered chars up to ending ". The next loop of S" is interpreted as a literal S and then closing ", which prints a single S to stdout.
" followed by any of NnoD; Try it online!
- Use " as both opening and closing quote, then print the char.

snail_ · Accepted Answer · 2018-06-03 03:26:55Z

Ahead, 1 byte

Prints 0 forever. O pops the stack and prints that value as a number written out (as opposed to a Unicode character). Like Befunge, the empty stack pops 0, so this will print 0.

Since this is a 1x1 board, the head has nowhere to go and will stay on this cell forever, outputting forever.

Khepu · Accepted Answer · 2018-06-05 08:03:32Z

1

Prolog (14 bytes)

a:-write(0),a.

Simple tail recursive predicate in swi-prolog. Called like so a.

answered Jun 5, 2018 at 8:03

Khepu

1112 bronze badges

\$\begingroup\$ Welcome to PPCG! \$\endgroup\$

Laikoni
– Laikoni

2018-06-06 14:16:32 +00:00
Commented Jun 6, 2018 at 14:16
\$\begingroup\$ @Laikoni it's nice to be here :) thank you. \$\endgroup\$

Khepu
– Khepu

2018-06-06 16:59:09 +00:00
Commented Jun 6, 2018 at 16:59

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Esolanging Fruit · Accepted Answer · 2018-08-10 05:01:25Z

Flobnar, 4 bytes

0,_@

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Outputs 0x00 bytes indefinitely.

This works because _ is said to get the conditional from the cell on the other side of it, and then use its value to choose between the east and west cells. It is expected to be evaluated from a vertical direction, but it doesn't have to be.

@ indicates the starting point for the program and evaluates to the return value of the cell to its west (_). _ evaluates what's on the other side (0,) to print 0. , always has a return value of 0, however, and this causes the horizontal if to choose the branch to its east. This is @, which evaluates the cell to its west, continuing the cycle.

Flobnar doesn't have decimal output by default, but the linked implementation has a -d flag which enables . for decimal output. This allows a slightly prettier version that outputs printable characters instead.

0._@

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Hall9000 · Accepted Answer · 2018-08-25 18:23:24Z

√ å ı ¥ ® Ï Ø ¿ , 3 bytes

(o)

Will output:

===== OUTPUT ===== 0 0 0 0 0 etc. ==================

followed by execution information.

TIO Compiler. Enter the code as the first input and None as the second.

JosiahRyanW · Accepted Answer · 2018-10-05 17:24:52Z

Taxi, 377 369 bytes

-8 bytes by getting rid of the quotes.

Go to Post Office:w 1 l 1 r 1 l. [B] ! is waiting at Writer's Depot. ! is waiting at Writer's Depot. ! is waiting at Writer's Depot. Go to Zoom Zoom:s 1 l 1 l 4 l 2 r. Go to Writer's Depot:w. Pickup a passenger going to Post Office. Pickup a passenger going to Post Office. Pickup a passenger going to Post Office. Go to Post Office:n 3 r 2 r 3 r 1 l. Switch to plan B.

The repetition of the passengers is needed for the driver to get enough fare to get enough gas to continue forever.

Try it online!

Jo King · Accepted Answer · 2018-11-28 11:34:25Z

Perl 6, 8 bytes

Thanks to nwellnhof for this solution.

.say xx*

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Prints (Any) infinitely.

Perl 6, 10 bytes

1...!*.say

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Defines a list that increments until the result of printing the current number is false (which never happens).

cobaltp · Accepted Answer · 2018-11-30 15:49:49Z

Aheui (esotope), 6 bytes

박망

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or simillar codes with same length like following;

반망 받망 ... 박맣 ...

will produce infinite output.

Οurous · Accepted Answer · 2019-02-13 02:35:34Z

1

Clean, 7 bytes

f=[0:f]

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Gives [0,0,0,0,...

answered Feb 13, 2019 at 2:35

Οurous

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KrystosTheOverlord · Accepted Answer · 2019-02-13 04:09:40Z

Gol><>, 1 byte

There we go, I feel like this cheats a little bit, but it works! Now to golf this more... ;)

Try it online!

Jo King · Accepted Answer · 2019-02-14 03:17:50Z

Muriel, 39 bytes

A:"\";.A;@\"A:\\\"\"+|A+A";@"A:\""+|A+A

Try it online!

This is near identical to the Muriel quine, except I've changed the print command in the last instruction to an eval command, and the addition of .A; in order to print something (in this case, the shortest thing was a part of the source code ("+|A+A";@"A:\""+|A+A) itself).

Jackson · Accepted Answer · 2019-04-15 05:09:17Z

05AB1E, 2 bytes

Version 1 (3 bytes)

[A,

prints out the alphabet

Version 1 (2 bytes)

[,

Outputs infinite newlines

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Mayube · Accepted Answer · 2019-04-16 14:36:01Z

Voovoos, 3 bytes

x.<

Pretty much just endlessly bounces between the . and <
. pops the top of the stack and prints it, but if you pop an empty stack in voovoos you get 0, so it just endlessly prints 0.

MilkyWay90 · Accepted Answer · 2019-05-13 02:52:53Z

YABALL, 3 bytes

!.?

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Explanation

! Go off of "reverse mode" (a mode where the IP goes left instead of right) if in reverse mode, otherwise no-op . Print current cell, which is NUL ? Go in "reverse mode"

Basically an infinite loop printing NULs.

The commands are executed like so: !.?.!.?.!.? ...

brhfl · Accepted Answer · 2019-05-14 17:18:52Z

MINOL, 5 bytes

GOTO0

Any expression in MINOL that isn't entered as part of a program (that is, isn't assigned a line number by the user) is considered line 0. While seemingly not a part of the official spec (which, as far as I can tell, is a series of letters sent to and subsequently reformatted and published by 'Dr. Dobb's Journal of Computer Calisthenics and Orthodontia' in 1976), lines executed this way always seem to spit out a newline. This obviously wouldn't be the case in a full program, which would take 11 bytes (inc. the trailing CR):

1 PR:GOTO1

u-ndefined · Accepted Answer · 2019-06-01 14:32:25Z

1

Turing Machine But Way Worse, 27 13 bytes

0 0 0 1 0 1 0

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Outputs infinite NUL characters.

edited Jun 1, 2019 at 14:32

answered May 13, 2019 at 5:08

u-ndefined

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squid · Accepted Answer · 2019-06-03 15:28:43Z

1

Triangular, 4 bytes

,%0/

Prints 0 repeatedly.

Try it online!

Ungolfed:

 , % 0 /

answered Jun 3, 2019 at 15:28

squid

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Edgex42 · Accepted Answer · 2019-07-28 12:53:22Z

1

Underload, 8 bytes

(:S:^):^

Endlessly outputs :S:^

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answered Jul 28, 2019 at 12:53

Edgex42

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Community · Accepted Answer · 2020-06-17 09:04:33Z

Pyth, 3 2 bytes

#d

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Prints the string " " (single space) until a print instruction produces an error (which, I mean, I guess could happen).

Community · Accepted Answer · 2020-06-17 09:04:33Z

1

PHP, 16 bytes 8 bytes

My first attempt and this Code Golf :)

while(a)

I'm sure I could make it better without that echo? hmm...

edited Jun 17, 2020 at 9:04

CommunityBot

1

answered Oct 12, 2017 at 14:06

Shaun Moore

112 bronze badges

1

\$\begingroup\$ Welcome to PPCG! Hope you stick around! \$\endgroup\$

Riker
– Riker

2017-10-12 14:58:42 +00:00
Commented Oct 12, 2017 at 14:58
\$\begingroup\$ Thanks! How was my attempt? Not as good as the others how do thy do it? :L \$\endgroup\$

Shaun Moore
– Shaun Moore

2017-10-12 16:27:01 +00:00
Commented Oct 12, 2017 at 16:27
\$\begingroup\$ It was pretty good! Best I could have gotten, at least. Most of the other answers are in golfing languages, which are much shorter, but don't let that discourage you! \$\endgroup\$

Riker
– Riker

2017-10-13 15:30:39 +00:00
Commented Oct 13, 2017 at 15:30
2

\$\begingroup\$ First, you can leave out the curcly braces, since there is only one statement in the loop anyway: while(1)echo 0;. To golf it further, you can use print instead of echo. Print allways returns 1, so you can then use it inside your while, golfing it to while(print 0);. You can get it even smaller if you're going for infinite error output: while(a);. \$\endgroup\$

chocochaos
– chocochaos

2018-02-13 09:04:45 +00:00
Commented Feb 13, 2018 at 9:04

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The Fifth Marshal · Accepted Answer · 2019-09-19 19:10:51Z

1

33, 5 bytes

1a[o]

Explanation:

1a (Set the accumulator to 1, to allow the loop to continue to run) [o] (Print the accumulator, 1, forever)

edited Sep 19, 2019 at 19:10

The Fifth Marshal

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answered Jul 29, 2019 at 6:21

TheOnlyMrCat

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The Fifth Marshal · Accepted Answer · 2019-09-20 04:39:57Z

1

bitch, 3 bytes

>/<

Try it online!

Explanation

> Begin loop / Print accumulator value (intialised to 0) < Loop back to beginning of loop

edited Sep 20, 2019 at 4:39

The Fifth Marshal

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answered Jan 30, 2019 at 0:16

Helen

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Stack Exchange Network

Shortest code to produce infinite output

Leaderboard

349 Answers 349

VBScript, 23 characters

GW-Basic, 9 bytes (tokenised)

Pyth - 2 bytes

Flipbit, 4 bytes

Dreaderef, 9 8 7 bytes

Explanation:

Forth, 24 bytes

PHP, 14 bytes

TIS `-n` `1` `1`, 12 bytes

Gol><>, 1 byte

Alternative solution, 1 byte

Ahead, 1 byte

Prolog (14 bytes)

Flobnar, 4 bytes

√ å ı ¥ ® Ï Ø ¿ , 3 bytes

Taxi, 377 369 bytes

Perl 6, 8 bytes

Perl 6, 10 bytes

Aheui (esotope), 6 bytes

Clean, 7 bytes

Gol><>, 1 byte

Muriel, 39 bytes

05AB1E, 2 bytes

Voovoos, 3 bytes

YABALL, 3 bytes

MINOL, 5 bytes

Turing Machine But Way Worse, 27 13 bytes

Triangular, 4 bytes

Underload, 8 bytes

Pyth, 3 2 bytes

PHP, 16 bytes 8 bytes

33, 5 bytes

Explanation:

bitch, 3 bytes

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Shortest code to produce infinite output

Leaderboard

349 Answers 349

VBScript, 23 characters

GW-Basic, 9 bytes (tokenised)

Pyth - 2 bytes

Flipbit, 4 bytes

Dreaderef, 9 8 7 bytes

Explanation:

Forth, 24 bytes

PHP, 14 bytes

TIS -n 1 1, 12 bytes

Gol><>, 1 byte

Alternative solution, 1 byte

Ahead, 1 byte

Prolog (14 bytes)

Flobnar, 4 bytes

√ å ı ¥ ® Ï Ø ¿ , 3 bytes

Taxi, 377 369 bytes

Perl 6, 8 bytes

Perl 6, 10 bytes

Aheui (esotope), 6 bytes

Clean, 7 bytes

Gol><>, 1 byte

Muriel, 39 bytes

05AB1E, 2 bytes

Voovoos, 3 bytes

YABALL, 3 bytes

MINOL, 5 bytes

Turing Machine But Way Worse, 27 13 bytes

Triangular, 4 bytes

Underload, 8 bytes

Pyth, 3 2 bytes

PHP, 16 bytes 8 bytes

33, 5 bytes

Explanation:

bitch, 3 bytes

Linked

Related

Hot Network Questions

TIS `-n` `1` `1`, 12 bytes