“Hello, World” was created by Brian Kernighan (pictured above), author of one of the most widely read programming books: C Programming Language, in 1978. He first referenced ‘Hello World’ in the C Programming Language book’s predecessor: A Tutorial Introduction to the Programming Language B published in 1973.
main( ) {
extrn a, b, c;
putchar(a); putchar(b); putchar(c); putchar(’!*n’);
} 1 ’hell’;
b ’o, w’;
c ’orld’;
Unfortunately, the legend himself can’t definitely pinpoint when or why he chose the words “Hello, World.” When asked what sparked the idea for the name “Hello, World” in interview with Forbes India, he said his memory’s dim. “What I do remember is that I had seen a cartoon that showed an egg and a chick and the chick was saying, “Hello, World.”
It’s pretty fitting, considering “Hello, World” represents the birth of computer programming as a widespread phenomenon for the masses.
At the time, neither Kernighan nor his colleague Dennis Ritchie, the late author of the C language, could imagine just how monumental the language and the tutorial book would have on the field of programming today. These ideas were nothing but a research project inside Bell Labs, the research and development branch of AT&T.
Although no one can scientifically explain why “Hello, World,” grew to become wildly popular, “Hello, World” program marks a major change in the historical rhetoric of programming.
