Why is the expression "Hello World" so popular in computer science?

Answer 1

"Hello World" was first introduced by Brian Wilson Kernighan, a Canadian born programmer who wrote "A Tutorial Introduction to the Language B".

Later on, Kernighan collaborated with Dennis Ritche, the programmer credited with creating the C programming language, to write the first book ever on programming in the C language. This book contained a simple, sample "Hello World" program that did just as the other responders describe - it printed "Hello World" to the screen.

Because C was becoming popular and Kernighan and Ritche were the first to write a book on it, the book itself became very popular with programmers around the world. Hence, the "Hello World" program became world famous.

Their book was published in 1978, which means that most of the college professors teaching programming would have read it. So the first thing most programming students learn how to do, in any language, is create a "hello world" program.

Answer 2

Short answer: it's a very old tradition that nobody has bothered to challenge.

From Wikipedia:
"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..."

Answer 3

The simplest thing one can do when one starts learning a programming language is to print something to the output screen. The first string used is "Hello World", hence the popularity.. "hello world" equals lamest/simplest program

Answer 4

Your first program is announcing its presence to the world - "I exist." There is no more fundamental statement than that, so it is an excellent place to start when building logical programs. From "I exist." you can move on to more complex reasoning and calculations. It is symbolic, and old (from the 70's, at least), which makes it a tradition. And since you need something to test the output of your first program, why not follow in the path of the great ones before you and go with tradition?

Answer 5

There is not explanation...just is what it is.."Hello World" is used when you first test the program...you say hello to people before you engage in a conversation...