Hello Deary, The first Hello World.

Perhaps you noticed the name of my site, "Hello Deary?" Maybe you noticed that the name is one word removed from "Hello World?" I thought it fitting that a personal blog should embrace the concept of "hello world" for the reason that a personal blog really is an attempt at reaching the world. Or, at least a portion of the world 🙂. Certainly, for me at least, it feels like the most appropriate venue for the phrase.

Before I go any further, just in case you are new to the concept of programming and you have not heard of "hello world" let's unpack what it means. And, for simplicity and the sake of this article "hello world" the phrase will now become hello world the noun.

What is Hello World?

Hello World put most simply is a test program. More than that though, it can be defined as the first set of instructions (a.k.a. code) or tiny program created by a person learning how to code with any particular programming language. Usually, the tiny program is part of the very first tutorial the student of the programming language or technology ever encounters during their learning journey. In other words, Hello World is the most basic program in any language, that can be created with the most minimal set of instructions by any novice no matter their level of ability. The sequence of events to create such a program usually unfolds the same way no matter the tutorial:

• User reads tutorial.

• User writes line(s) of code to make the program.

• User runs the program.

• The computer renders to the screen text which reads, "Hello World".

After the steps are completed (the hope from the perspective of the creator of the tutorial) is that the learner understands the beauty, the elegance and the utility of the programming language they're learning. The impact on the learner should be a moment of triumph and a realization that programming is really cool and not that "hard" after all. From this perspective Hello World is like an ice breaker. Hopefully, this is just the programmer's first triumph on a very long journey of many coding triumphs.

Because "hello world" has become such a common (seemingly ubiquitous!) colloquialism, I thought it would be fun to take a look at the phrase and ask some questions: Where did it come from? How did it become so popular? Will the concept of hello world ever go away? Or, change into something new? Has it totally lost its impact? Its fun?

Every internet project, language tutorial, and framework quick start guide have their own take on hello world. My website is yet another point of view on the idea. Where hello world is a general hello to everyone, hello deary is a general hello to a specific person (you dear reader). Really though, almost no one I know calls anyone deary accept when trying to be a little bit funny. 🙂 Such is the case here, it is not meant to be open for too much academic critism, but I do hope to be tapping into something that is at least a little bit culturally relevant.

The first hello world

According to wikipedia, the true origins of hello world in computing are somewhat unclear. However, the popularization of the phrase can be attributed to, "a 1974 Bell Laboratories internal memorandum by Brian Kernighan, Programming in C: A Tutorial." Brian Kernighan's memo was re-used in his 1978 book The C Programming Language. From there the test program began seeping into the programmers cultural vernacular everywhere. You may wonder, was the book really popular enough to spread the concept of hello world? Yes, indeed it was and is. If time is a measure of worth, then The C Programming Language has proven its worth many times over. It's still in print and some on the internet namely Chuck Herbert, claim that it's the best selling intro to programming book ever written.

Hello world, welcome to the club.

Will Hello World ever go away? The short answer is no, it won't ever. Hello World is the test program of all test programs. Both the tutorial author and the learner see it as a right of passage for the learner. The program itself is not an achievement, but a reward. The learner has had to make a decision to learn something new. They have put in time and effort to search for the tutorial, discover it, and finally press the keys to make the magic happen. As for the author, they could choose to use any test program from their imagination. Why do that when they have a better alternative: a program that has become so engrained into the collective programmer's consciousness that it could easily be appended with welcome to the club. That's what it is, hello world is not merely a simple test program, it's a welcoming to everyone. Simply put, it's the most friendly and common way amongst techy teachers everywhere to bring newcomers into the fold. So, why do it any other way than hello world?