Hello, World!
Meaning
A traditional phrase used in programming to demonstrate a program's basic functionality, often by displaying it on a screen.
Origin
The iconic phrase "Hello, World!" has its roots firmly planted in the early days of computer programming, specifically at Bell Labs. Its first recorded appearance was in a 1971 internal memo by Brian Kernighan, titled "A Tutorial Introduction to the Language B," where it served as a simple example to illustrate how to make a program produce output. The phrase truly rocketed into the programming lexicon with the 1978 publication of Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie's seminal book, The C Programming Language. This foundational text, which introduced countless students to the C language, used "Hello, World!" as its very first example, cementing its status as the de facto rite of passage for every new programmer. It's now the universal starting point, a friendly greeting from a fledgling program to the vast digital world.
Examples
- My first Python script just printed "Hello, World!" to the console.
- When learning a new coding language, the first task is almost always to get a "Hello, World!" program running.