Doesn't SCP just give you the same number of characters, since there is no select nothing action? The paste replaces whatever is currently selected. That's what it looks like the C++ code in the article is doing to me. That's also how a quick real world test works for me. That's why you don't see any SCP in their solution not followed by another P.
No, per the original asker on Math Exchange SCP doubles the number of As, there's no need in their problem description to deselect. It's not the same as the typical C-a, C-c, C-v shortcuts on a modern computer where you'd need a deselect option after C-c. The C++ program produces a trace that also results in SCP doubling the size, or the 42 action sequence wouldn't even work. If you look at the trace that Hillel shows (and is on Math Overflow) it would only work out to 2304 As if you had to do SCPP to double the size and SCPPP to triple it. Which is quite a bit short of the target of 100,000.
> What I started thinking about was – If the steps of "select all", "copy" and "paste" are roughly counted as one step. Each step makes the number ×2, so it is a geometric progression with a common ratio of 2.
It's clear from that that he was not thinking of a paste following a select-copy as replacing what was already there.
