Hello World!

Introduction

“Hello, World!” is the most famous and widely used example of a program in the history of computing: a short program that prints the message Hello, World! on the screen and serves as the first instruction for language syntax, a test environment, or a demonstration that the compiler/runtime tool works correctly.

History and origin

The practice of displaying a short greeting message as an example has its roots in early test programs for interacting with terminals and teletype devices, but the tradition of the exact phrase “hello, world” was popularized by an example in the 1978 book The C Programming Language. The first documented example using the phrase comes from earlier material by Brian Kernighan and probably from the BCPL environment of the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Who invented Hello, World?

It is not about one person who came up with a phrase like a patent; The key points are:

• Brian Kernighan is the author of an example that has appeared in documents and tutorials related to B/BCPL and later in C.
• There is a strong link between early BCPL examples and later appearances in the C literature, so the tradition can be traced through the works of Kernighan and earlier examples in the BCPL community.

How and where it is applied

• Education — the first program students write to learn the basic syntax and flow of program development.
• Installation test — checks whether the compiler, interpreter or runtime is installed correctly.
• Documentation and tutorials — serves as a minimal, understandable example to demonstrate the functionality of a language or library.
• Benchmarking and sanity check — in some tools, it is used as the simplest execution test.

Short comparison table (attributes relevant to Hello World)

Examples of short Hello World programs

C

#include <stdio.h>

int main(void) {
   printf("Hello, World!\n");
   return 0;
}

Pascal (Free Pascal / Turbo Pascal)

program HelloWorld;
begin
writeln('Hello, World!');
end.

C++

#include <iostream>
int main() {
std::cout << "Hello, World!" << std::endl;
return 0;
}

Java

public class HelloWorld {
   public static void main(String[] args) {
      System.out.println("Hello, World!");
   }
}

JavaScript (Node.js / browser console)

console.log("Hello, World!");

PHP (CLI or embedded)

<?php
echo "Hello, World!\n";

Python

print("Hello, World!")

C#

using System;

class Program {
   static void Main() {
      Console.WriteLine("Hello, World!");
   }
}

SQL (ANSI SQL)

SELECT 'Hello, World!';

TypeScript

console.log("Hello, World!");

Visual Basic .NET

Module Hello
Sub Main()
Console.WriteLine(“Hello, World!”)
End Sub
End Module

MITS ALTAIR BASIC

10 PRINT "HELLO WORLD!"

R

print("Hello, World!")

Perl

print "Hello, World!\n";

Delphi (Object Pascal)

program HelloWorld;
begin
   Writeln('Hello, World!');
end.

Fortran (modern)

program hello
print *, "Hello, World!"
end program hello

Ada

with Ada.Text_IO; use Ada.Text_IO;
procedure Hello is
begin
   Put_Line("Hello, World!");
end Hello;

COBOL

IDENTIFICATION DIVISION.
PROGRAM-ID. HELLO.
PROCEDURE DIVISION.
DISPLAY "Hello, World!".
STOP RUN.

Assembly x86 (Linux, NASM)

section .data

msg db "Hello, World!", 10
len equ $ - msg

section .text

global _start
_start:
mov rax, 1          ; sys_write
mov rdi, 1          ; stdout
mov rsi, msg
mov rdx, len

syscall

mov rax, 60         ; sys_exit
xor rdi, rdi

syscall

ARM64 / AArch64

(Linux; Apple Silicon uses the same architecture, but macOS syscalls are different)

section .data

msg db "Hello, World!", 10
len equ $ - msg

section .text

global _start
_start:
mov rax, 1          ; sys_write
mov rdi, 1          ; stdout
mov rsi, msg
mov rdx, len

syscall

mov rax, 60         ; sys_exit
xor rdi, rdi

syscall

Note: Apple’s  M-series (M1/M2/M4, etc.) uses the AArch64 instruction set, but macOS uses different syscall numbers and ABI details; the example above works on Linux for AArch64. For macOS assembly, it is necessary to customize calls and conventions.

Meaning and influence

• Cultural symbol: It has become a recognizable symbol of the beginning of learning programming and is often used in memes, presentations, and courses.
• Standardization of examples: due to its simplicity, it allows direct comparison of basic syntax and tools between languages.

And the Conclusion

Hello, World! is more than just a simple example — it’s a cultural and practical standard in computer science that connects generations of programmers and serves as the first step in learning a language or checking out the work environment. Its history is evolutionary and related to works such as Brian Kernighan’s tutorials and early BCPL examples.