In computer programming, what’s the origin of ‘Hello World’?

Answer 1

heh.

While small test programs existed since the development of programmable computers, the tradition of using the phrase "Hello world!" as a test message was influenced by an example program in the book The C Programming Language. The example program from that book prints "hello, world" (without capital letters or exclamation sign), and was inherited from a 1974 Bell Laboratories internal memorandum by Brian Kernighan, Programming in C: A Tutorial, which contains the first known version:

main() {
printf("hello, world");
}

The first known instance of the usage of the words "hello" and "world" together in computer literature occurred earlier, in Kernighan's 1972 Tutorial Introduction to the Language B, with the following code:

main( ) {
extrn a, b, c;
putchar(a); putchar(b); putchar(c); putchar('!*n');
}
a 'hell';
b 'o, w';
c 'orld';


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hello_world

Answer 2

Brian Kernhigan worked at Bell Labs in 1974 and wrote what is typically agreed upon as the first and most complete book on the C programming Language. In order to provide a simple example of a display command, he used the following:

Main () {
printf ("Hello World");
}

This command, printf was a new concept in programing because it could be used to both actually print something to a printer or it could be used to "print" something to a display, i.e. computer screen.

Using the example, Brian created one of the simplest ways to show the flexibility of the C programming language. The example became a standard for showing what has become a mondern construct of the flexibility required in the next generations of programing and therefore becomes one the basics of any tutorial in modern languages.

I hope that helps.

Take Care,

TBG

Answer 3

Have a look here for some interesting reading: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hello_world