The Hello World encyclopedia

Every language starts
with hello.

Compare the first program in 50 languages, formats, and protocols—from Python to Whitespace.

50
entries
7
categories
1
first program

Browse the collection

Find your next hello

Search by language, inventor, use, or category.

Showing 50 entries
Python A versatile, high-level programming language known for its ease of use and readability, widely used for web development, data analysis, artificial intelligence, and more. Programming languages 1991 JavaScript A powerful scripting language that runs in the browser, enabling dynamic content and interactivity on web pages. Web & UI 1995 C# A modern, object-oriented programming language for building applications on the .NET platform. Programming languages 2000 Java A class-based, object-oriented programming language designed for portability across platforms, commonly used for building enterprise-scale applications. Programming languages 1995 Rust A multi-paradigm system programming language focused on safety, especially safe concurrency, supporting functional and imperative-procedural paradigms. Systems & hardware 2010 Go Also known as Golang, it is a statically typed, compiled programming language designed for simplicity, efficiency, and reliability, particularly for networked services and large-scale software infrastructure. Programming languages 2009 .NET IL .NET Intermediate Language (IL), formerly known as MSIL (Microsoft Intermediate Language) or CIL (Common Intermediate Language), is the low-level programming language used by the .NET Framework. IL is a CPU-independent set of instructions that can be executed by the .NET runtime environment. When a .NET program is compiled, it is converted into IL, which is then JIT-compiled to native code by the .NET runtime upon execution. Systems & hardware 2000 Ada Ada is a structured, statically typed, imperative, and object-oriented high-level programming language, extended from Pascal and other languages. It is designed for development of very large software systems. Ada was named after Ada Lovelace, who is credited as the first computer programmer. Programming languages 1980 AppleScript A scripting language created by Apple Inc. that facilitates automated control over scriptable Mac applications. It's designed to operate within the Apple ecosystem, allowing for complex workflows and automation tasks. Programming languages 1993 Arduino An open-source electronics platform based on easy-to-use hardware and software. Arduino boards are able to read inputs - light on a sensor, a finger on a button, or a Twitter message - and turn it into an output - activating a motor, turning on an LED, publishing something online. You can tell your board what to do by sending a set of instructions to the microcontroller on the board. Systems & hardware 2005 Bash Bash (Bourne Again SHell) is a Unix shell and command language written by Brian Fox for the GNU Project as a free software replacement for the Bourne shell. It has been widely adopted as the default shell for most Linux distributions and Apple's macOS (formerly OS X). Bash is a command processor that typically runs in a text window, where the user types commands that cause actions. Bash can also read commands from a file, called a script. Systems & hardware 1989 BASIC Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code (BASIC) is a family of general-purpose, high-level programming languages whose design philosophy emphasizes ease of use. Programming languages 1964 Befunge Befunge is an esoteric programming language known for its unusual structure. The code is arranged in a two-dimensional grid, allowing the instruction pointer to move in four directions (up, down, left, right), which enables interesting looping and control flow structures. Esoteric languages 1993 Blockly Blockly is a library for adding visual code editing to web and mobile apps. It allows users to create code by stacking blocks, similar to Scratch, making it an excellent tool for teaching programming concepts without the need to type code. Visual & learning 2012 C C is a general-purpose, procedural computer programming language supporting structured programming, lexical variable scope, and recursion, while a static type system prevents unintended operations. By design, C provides constructs that map efficiently to typical machine instructions and has found lasting use in applications previously coded in assembly language. Such applications include operating systems and various application software for computer architectures that range from supercomputers to PLCs and embedded systems. Systems & hardware 1972 C++ An extension of the C programming language, C++ offers object-oriented features and is used for system/software applications, game development, and high-performance applications. Systems & hardware 1985 Chef Chef is an esoteric programming language where programs look like cooking recipes. Variables are ingredients, and control structures are cooking methods. Designed to challenge and amuse programmers. Esoteric languages 2002 COBOL COBOL (Common Business-Oriented Language) is a high-level programming language designed for business, finance, and administrative systems for companies and governments. COBOL is known for its clear syntax, which was designed to be readable by non-programmers. Programming languages 1959 CoffeeScript CoffeeScript is a programming language that transcompiles to JavaScript, meaning that scripts written in CoffeeScript can be compiled into JavaScript and run in any JavaScript environment. It's designed to enhance JavaScript's brevity and readability, offering a more elegant syntax while adding additional features to the language. Web & UI 2009 CSS Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a style sheet language used for describing the presentation of a document written in a markup language like HTML. CSS is a cornerstone technology of the World Wide Web, alongside HTML and JavaScript. Web & UI 1996 Dockerfile A Dockerfile is a text document that contains all the commands a user could call on the command line to assemble an image. Using docker build users can create an automated build that executes several command-line instructions in succession. Data & configuration 2013 Erlang Erlang is a general-purpose, concurrent, functional programming language, as well as a garbage-collected runtime system. It was built by Ericsson to support distributed, fault-tolerant, soft-real-time, non-stop applications. Erlang's runtime system allows it to be used in several telecom and soft real-time applications. Programming languages 1986 F# A strongly typed, functional-first programming language that enables developers to tackle complex computing problems with simple, maintainable, and robust code. Programming languages 2005 Forth Forth is a unique, stack-based programming language and environment designed for programming embedded systems, real-time applications, and operating systems. It is known for its extensibility, efficiency, and the ability to directly manipulate hardware, making it popular in certain low-level and embedded applications. Systems & hardware 1968 FORTRAN FORTRAN (Formula Translation) is a high-level language designed for numerical and scientific computing. It is one of the oldest programming languages still in use today, known for its powerful array handling and numerical computation features. Programming languages 1957 GLSL GLSL (OpenGL Shading Language) is the high-level shading language for the OpenGL graphics API, used to specify the graphical effects programmatically. GLSL shaders are executed on the GPU to allow for real-time rendering performance. It enables sophisticated effects by controlling the graphics pipeline, allowing for the manipulation of vertices and fragments (pixels) for custom rendering effects. Systems & hardware 2004 GW-BASIC An early version of BASIC provided by Microsoft for the IBM PC. GW-BASIC is a dialect of BASIC and was succeeded by QBasic. Programming languages 1983 Haskell Haskell is a standardized, general-purpose purely functional programming language, with non-strict semantics and strong static typing. It is named after logician Haskell Curry. The language is known for enabling concise and expressive code, and it's widely used in academia and industry for teaching, research, and commercial application development. Haskell's rich type system and emphasis on immutability and side-effect-free programming support the development of robust, maintainable, and efficient software. Programming languages 1990 HTML The standard markup language for documents designed to be displayed in a web browser. Web & UI 1993 HTTP HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) is an application-layer protocol for transmitting hypermedia documents, such as HTML. It was designed for communication between web browsers and web servers, but it can be used for other purposes as well. HTTP follows a classical client-server model, with a client opening a connection to make a request, then waiting until it receives a response from the server. Protocols 1991 JSON JavaScript Object Notation is an open standard file format and data interchange format that uses human-readable text to store and transmit data objects consisting of attribute–value pairs and arrays. Data & configuration 2001 Kotlin A modern, statically typed programming language that is fully interoperable with Java and Android for building mobile applications, server-side applications, and more. Programming languages 2011 LOLCODE LOLCODE is an esoteric programming language inspired by lolspeak, the language used in LOLcats memes. It's designed to mimic the grammatical peculiarities of lolspeak, making for humorous code writing. Esoteric languages 2007 Markdown A lightweight markup language with plain-text-formatting syntax. Its design allows it to be converted to many output formats, but the original tool by the same name only supports HTML. Data & configuration 2004 Pascal Pascal is a procedural programming language, designed as a small, efficient language intended to encourage good programming practices using structured programming and data structuring. It is named in honor of the French mathematician, physicist, and philosopher Blaise Pascal. Programming languages 1970 PHP PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor) is a popular general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited to web development. Fast, flexible, and pragmatic, PHP powers everything from your blog to the most popular websites in the world. Web & UI 1995 Python Turtle PythonTurtle is an educational library for Python programming that aims to teach the basics of programming and computational thinking via a fun, visual approach using a virtual 'turtle' that can draw intricate shapes and designs. The Turtle module in Python is derived from the original Turtle graphics from Logo programming language, introduced in the late 1960s. Visual & learning 1991 Rockstar Rockstar is a dynamically typed Turing-complete programming language designed for creating programs that are also song lyrics. Rockstar is heavily influenced by the lyrical conventions of 1980s hard rock and power ballads. Esoteric languages 2018 Ruby A dynamic, open-source programming language with a focus on simplicity and productivity, popularized by the Ruby on Rails web framework. Programming languages 1995 Scratch Scratch is a visual programming language aimed at children and beginners to create interactive stories, games, and animations. It uses colorful blocks to represent code concepts, making programming accessible and fun. Visual & learning 2003 Smalltalk Smalltalk is an object-oriented, dynamically typed, reflective programming language. Smalltalk was created as the language underpinning the 'new world' of computing exemplified by 'human–computer symbiosis.' It was designed and created in part for educational use, more so for constructionist learning, at the Learning Research Group (LRG) of Xerox PARC. Programming languages 1972 SQL SQL (Structured Query Language) is a domain-specific language used in programming and designed for managing data held in a relational database management system (RDBMS), or for stream processing in a relational data stream management system (RDSMS). It is particularly useful in handling structured data, i.e., data incorporating relations among entities and variables. Data & configuration 1974 Swift A powerful, open-source programming language for Apple's iOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS app development, emphasizing safety, performance, and software design patterns. Programming languages 2014 VB.NET A multi-paradigm, object-oriented programming language, implemented on the .NET Framework. VB.NET is an evolution of the Visual Basic language to include .NET's powerful features. Programming languages 2001 Visual Basic An event-driven programming language from Microsoft that combines the simplicity of BASIC with the power and flexibility of .NET. Programming languages 1991 Whitespace Whitespace is an esoteric programming language that uses only whitespace characters (spaces, tabs, and newlines) for its syntax, making its code invisible to the naked eye in most text editors. It was designed to challenge the conventional concepts of what constitutes a programming language and to explore the idea that only visible characters should be considered significant in source code. Esoteric languages 2003 x86 Assembly x86 assembly language is a family of backward-compatible assembly languages, which provide some level of compatibility all the way back to the Intel 8008 introduced in April 1972. x86 assembly languages are used to produce object code for the x86 class of processors. Systems & hardware 1978 XAML XAML (Extensible Application Markup Language) is a declarative XML-based language developed by Microsoft that is used for initializing structured values and objects. It is primarily used to design user interfaces in .NET Framework and .NET Core applications, particularly in Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), Universal Windows Platform (UWP), and Xamarin.Forms for designing UI layouts. Web & UI 2006 XML Extensible Markup Language is a markup language that defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable. Data & configuration 1996 YAML YAML (YAML Ain't Markup Language) is a human-readable data serialization language. It is commonly used for configuration files and in applications where data is being stored or transmitted. YAML aims to be both easy to read and write. Data & configuration 2001