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Hello World Program Origins

Many software developers have seen examples of the "Hello World" program in textbooks and may have even written one. The program's purpose is to provide the fewest statements and produce some output, notably the message "Hello World."

Most programming textbooks have examples of the "Hello World" program, but few people know its origins. The first instance of a documented "Hello World" program appeared in A Tutorial Introduction to the Language B, written by Brian Kernighan, in 1973.

B was a language developed at Bell Laboratories that was a precursor to the popular programming language C. While this programming language has long been forgotten, software developers still feel the textbook's impact.


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