‘Hello, World’

MIT’s Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Lab:

Today’s the day that “hello world” said “hello world!”

The term was coined in a textbook published #otd in 1978: “C Programming Language,” written by Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie.

Tweeted yesterday, so it’s no longer “on this day”, sorry, but interesting history nonetheless.

I still write “Hello, world” as a first exercise in any new language or programming environment. Not a superstition per se, but more like a talisman. Just seems like the right thing to do.

The C Programming Language is a wonderfully-written book. It explains the basics of C better than anything I’ve ever seen. C is a weird, hard language but K&R describe it with joy. It’s a serious book written in a conversational style.

★ Tuesday, 23 February 2021