I want to kick this new blog off in style! If I was learning a new programming language, the firstest¹ program would be helloworld (abbreviated hellow). But what is the hellow equivalent for the blog scape? Is there one? Where did hellow even come from?

The First Hello

In my understanding, the first published rendition of hellow was in the pre-eminent programming manual “The C Programming language” by Kernighan and Ritchie (simply called K&R to those in the know). The entirety of the program is reproduced here, verbatim, without permission:

#include <stdio.h>
main ()
{
    printf("hello, world\n");
}

There are two things I find of particular interest:

1. In the book, beneath the code, the caption reads “The first C program.” Does this imply it was the FIRST C program ever written???

2. There is no capitalization or punctuation. The string I usually write is something akin to “Hello World!!!” Much more flippant than helloworlds somber roots.

Other Hellos

Different mediums have their own renditions of hellow. For instance, OpenGL programs usually involve the venerated teapot model, embedded systems blink an LED, and so on. But the messages are similar: The basics work and I am ready to face the world!

Hello

So I suppose the actual implementation is less important than the spirit. Thus, without further ado: