A short History Of 'Hello, World'

 

 

It’s the most famous program. Known as the first example in nearly every programming language for every programmer, where did this message come from?

As a function, the computer program simply tells the computer to display the words “Hello, World!” Traditionally, it’s the first programming language developers use to test systems. For programmers, seeing the two words on the screen means their code can compile, load, run and they can see the output.

It’s a test, signifying a start to a program. Over the past several decades, it’s grown to become a time-honored tradition.  All programmers that have come before you have, at some point, felt the same rush of adrenaline after realizing they successfully communicated through the computer. Here’s how the two most famous words in the history of programming first began:

Where does ‘Hello World’ come from?

“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. Let’s look at its historical context.

Still in its Shell

It’s hard to imagine today, but before “Hello World” was published in Kernighan’s book, computers carried a negative connotation among the public before the 1970s. They were massive mainframes, incredibly slow, filled an entire room and needed a full staff of scientists or researchers for maintenance. In fact, before the late 70s, computer scientists programmed using stacks of punch cards!

People generally saw computers as untouchable, complex and ridiculously expensive devices reserved only for the elite in academia, defense or the government.  In fact, the industry titans who devoted their lives to the world of computing worked hard to overcome this stigma. It’s amazing to think how we’ve come so far as to some actually feel anxiety in being without our personal devices.

One of the first famous uses of computers in the US was back in 1890 when the Automatic Electrical Tabulating Machine calculated data for over 60 million Americans. In the 1940s, the Bombes and Colossuscomputers decrypted German codes during World War II.

The 1950s welcomed the first commercial computers, like the Zuse 3 and UNIVAC, for arithmetic operations, but you would need millions of dollars to actually buy one.

From an educational standpoint, most all of the programming language books about the earlier programming languages, like FORTRAN or BASIC, started off by proving a point: Computers are, in fact, useful. This is according to  Algorithmist and Researcher John Mount. Mount says the explosive popularity of “Hello, World” signifies an era when computer scientists no longer felt they needed to convince society that the utility of computers is tangible.

For instance, in the 1964 book My Computer Likes Me When I Speak Basic, the introduction talks about the purpose of programming languages in general. Plus, the first example outputs: “MY HUMAN UNDERSTANDS ME.” Using this example aims to reinforce the unpopular idea that humans can, in fact, talk to computers. The 1956 Dynamic Programming kicks off with examples that can be applied to ordinary calculus.

It wasn’t until The C Programming Language when “Hello World” really took off.

‘Hello World:’ Programming Has Arrived

One major catalyst that sparked the spread of ‘Hello World’ was the parallel introduction of the PDP-11, one of the first commercial success of microcomputers. Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) sold over 600,000 units of the PDP-11 total at about $10,000 each, which was drastically lower than the millions of dollars computers typically cost. Plus, the PDP-11 16-bit series didn’t require punch cards. It was the first time you could use a programming language to directly talk to a computer.

But in order to boost public acceptance, DEC didn’t refer to it as a computer. It marketed it as “Programmed Data Processor” to disassociate the product from the mainframe computers of the past. As more people were purchasing a programmable computer, the demand for his book C Programming Language rose skyrocketed.

C and the operating system Unix first became popular on the PDP-11. So, it would follow then that the boom in commercial computers that supports the new C programming language, propelled thousands of people to read 200-page The C Programming Language. This re-introduced ‘Hello World.’

Almost every programmer who worked on desktop software in the 80s and 90s thereafter owned a copy or referenced the book. Million of copies have sold to date.

There were probably many different basic programs to start with, but ‘Hello World’ is, by far, the most famous today. Every programmer remembers their first ‘Hello World’ as a rite of passage. Many might not realize it, but each time a programmer feels the sweet feeling of triumph in clearing the first hurdle of programming with the words ‘Hello World,’ is experiencing a moment that transcends history.

The Rise and Fall of Nokia - My Tryst

 

 

Today I stumbled across these videos on youtube. They are about the meteoric rise and unexpected fall of mobile devices maker Nokia. I think the downward spiral of the Finnish company is now studied by marketting students in MBA courses, because here is an example of being the first in any industry or market simply does not guarantee everlasting success. In other words, becomming number one is easy. Retaining that position is the difficult part. Once this company was the leading telecommunication handset manufacturer in the world. It still is today, in a way, counting their number of feature phones or dumb phones as some pundits call it. But they lost the battle in the smartphone market, having theoretically  invented that market. Today the only devices where their brand name can be seen is on low end feature phones which do not run a complicated smartphone OS.

I have a personal tryst with this company. I have been (and still am) a Nokia fan. Because of their design. And because at one point I did get to work for Nokia. Well, not directly. I started my career in the IT industry in 2007 with a Accenture, the American IT outsourcing company. Accenture had a long-standing partnership with Nokia, and much of their Nokia projects where being run from the Indian city of Chennai. From 2007 to 2009 I was part of the team in India which designed and developed an all-under-one-umbrella CRM system for Nokia's numerous worldwide partners. It was my first project and the best learning platform I had. In 2008 I got the fairly early opportunity to travel to Nokia's headquarters in Finland to co-ordinate in the onsite-offshore teams. I travelled twice, and got to experience the notorious Finnish winter and the effect of the nordic sun (long days in summer). I travelled there a few months after Apple had launcher the first iphone. At that time, Nokia was world leader in terms of number of units sold, and they practically owned both the feature phone and smartphone markets. Apple's venture into the smartphone market with a single, expensively priced phone on an exclusive contract with a telecom network did not pose any challenge to Nokia. Instead, they took it as a joke.

Nokia immediately went into defensive and denial mode. In the company's internal networking forums, employees where actively discussing the unique features and coolness of the new iphone, and whether this posed any danger to Nokia. The company's technology leaders responded by announcing that the iphone was Apple's doom. In internal mails (which I no longer have a copy of) the company described in detail why the iphone could not replace Nokia. Apple had only a single model, priced ridiculously high on an exclusive contract, compared to the various hundreds of Nokia models. Apple wanted to sell the same phone to CEOs of companies and world leaders, and even to college students. Should CEOs have the same phones are students ? Nokia had various models customized for every type of user, and in every price range. The first iphone did not support multitasking, while Symbian coolly supported multitasking. Apple's desire to have the user's thumb for navigation on a small screen  was impractical, since a larger screen would mean a shorter battery life. While Nokia phones boasted of battery life of couple of days even for the high end models. And then there was the service network, Nokia had the world's best customer service network for their products. The project I was on at that point was developing new software to be used on this network globally. Apple had no such end customer support, nor global partner network.

The list goes on and on, every feature of the iphone was found by Nokia to have faults. The iphone, they predicted,  would only be used by the apple's user community, which was of course a minority. Anyone reading these internal mails would  be convinced that Nokia had many decades in them before they would lose their market share. My employer at that time was promised projects for many years and we were delighted to hear that ! During my second travel to Finland in 2009, Nokia had responded by releasing the ExpressMusic phone, which had a tilt-able touch-screen and full qwerty keyboard underneath running a newer version of symbian. It still did not have multi-touch, but scored high on all other points. Even as early as 2009, Nokia had prototype version of tablet computer and what they called mini-laptops lined up for launch. We came to know of this because we were asked to include these products in the CRM system we were developing.

I left the company in 2010, and moved onto other things, happy and confident that the CRM software we had developed would bring back the lost charm to Nokia. By 2011, the writing was clear on the wall. Worldwide sales of the company dropped, and Asian handset makers overtook Nokia in the smartphone market. The recession did not help either. Nokia had to layoff a majority of their employees, many people I had worked with during my project lost their jobs. I was really really hoping they would partner with Google and embrace Android as their new smartphone OS.  I even expected them to come up with a totally new Unix based OS. Meego was too late and did not count.  While Samsung and LG where shamelessly copying the iphone design for their devices, Nokia still decided to stay true to their European modular designs. They sold their symbian project to Accenture somewhere in 2009, and transferred many of that team. But Symbian was lightyears behind what iOS and Android could do. The developer community too waned, and programmers jumped onto the new OSs and started selling their apps on appmarkets. The only relief probably was that they where no the only phone company losing. RIM, the blackberry company folded first, and turned into a joke for the industry. At least Nokia could have learnt from other's mistakes. And when Stephen Elop decided to sell Nokia to his previous company Microsoft, that was the last nail on the coffin.

I guess without innovation, a technology company cannot survive for long. Nokia's failure to act on time and address competition was probably their biggest mistake. It is a lesson technology companies will brood over forever.

But for me, they still make the best hardware for phones. I have used their phones all my lift. Those handsets never woudl heat up during conversations, and were built to last. The N72 I had bought in 2007 served me faithfully for 8 years ! It had travelled with me to 7 countries and had weathered rain , sand and snow. I have used the sim cards of 5 work networks on it. The 3310 was my first cell phone. I was an expert on composing ring tone on that hone using the composer. I developerd the J2ME version of Sokoban for symbian during my college years to study the platform.My entire family use Nokia phones, even today.

So long, Nokia.

NOKIA - 150 years

 

NOKIA was founded on this date 150 years ago.

Sadly, even it's wikipedia page did not get any visitors for the occasion.

 

 

Well, they remembered it at their own offices:

 

From paper to phones to acquisition by Microsoft and its recent revival, the story of Nokia goes back 150 years to May 12, 1865 when Knut Fredrik Idestam secured the permit to set up his paper mill in southern Finland. Idestam's second mill was on the banks of the Nokianvirta river. Nokia derives its name from the river. After diversifying into rubber, cables and electronics Nokia entered the world, that it would later conquer, of mobile communications in 1968.

 

In 1979 Nokia and Salora got together to establish Mobira Oy, a radio telephone company. 1981 marked a new era for Nokia when the Nordic Mobile Telephone service was set up. It was the world's first international cellular network and Nokia launched its first car phone, Mobira Senator, in 1982.

150 years ago, on May 12, 1865, Nokia founder Knut Fredrik Idestam secured the permit to set up his paper mill in southern Finland.

The Mobira Talkman, a giant 'wireless' car phone was introduced in 1984. Much of the weight was attributed to its battery.

In 1987, Nokia phones shed some weight with the launch of its first handheld mobile phone - the Mobira Cityman. The Mobira Cityman 900 weighed 800 grams and cost about 4,560 euros (approximately Rs 267,200). The phone got the nickname "Gorba", as the then Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev was famously pictured making a call from the phone.

When the GSM network was rolled out in 1991, Nokia released its first digital handheld GSM phone, the Nokia 1011. The world's first first GSM call was also made using a Nokia device.

Nokia followed up on the 1011 with the Nokia 101 phone in 1992. The phone came with an extendible aerial.

Launched by Nokia in 1994, the Nokia 2110 was the first phone to feature the Nokia Tune as a ringtone. The Nokia Tune is derived from Gran Vals, a classical guitar piece, composed by Francisco Tarrega in the 19th century. The Nokia 2100 series went to to be a big success. Nokia had expected to sell about 400,000 units, but 20 million phones were sold the world over.

The banana-shaped Nokia 8110 was launched in 1996. This slider-phone found a place in popular culture when it was featured in the 1999 blockbuster The Matrix.

The 1997 Nokia 6110 was the first device to feature the addictive Snake game. The game is available on about 350 million mobile phones. The hot-selling 6110 also boasted of some other Nokia firsts: infra-red port and menu icons.

Launched in 1998, the Nokia 8810 was the first mobile phone without an external antenna. The slider form of the phone also added to its appeal. By 1998 Nokia was the world leader in mobile phones, a position it holds till date.

2002 was an year of innovation at Nokia. The Nokia 6650 launched was Nokia's first 3G phone launched that year.

Also released in 2002, the Nokia 7650 was the first Nokia phone with a built-in camera. The 7650 was also one of the first Nokia phones to have a colour display.

Another 2002 innovation at Nokia was the 3650. The Nokia 3650 was the first phone by Nokia to be able to record video.

Nokia launched its mobile-phone-cum-handheld-gaming-device N-Gage in 2003. In 2009 Nokia announced that it will stop development of N-Gage games and would discontinue the N-Gage service by the end of 2010.

Nokia launched its Nseries phones in 2005. These entertainment-cum-communication devices form Nokia's top line of offerings. The N70, N90 and N91 were the first of the series to be introduced.

In April 2010, Nokia announced the N8, it's new flagship phone. The phone was launched in October 2010.

Faced with dwindling sales and stiff competition from Android and iPhone, Nokia ditched its ageing Symbian platform in favour of Microsoft Windows Phone software. Nokia hoped that this move would help it reclaim the smartphone crown and bring back its mojo. The company announced its first Windows Phone devices, Lumia 800 and Lumia 710 at the Nokia World 2011 in London on October 26.

To further strengthen its hold on the feature phone segment and get an entry into the entry-level smartphone market Nokia introduced its Asha range of phones in 2011.

At the Mobile World Congress 2012, Nokia unveiled its Nokia 808 PureView smartphone with a 41 megapixel camera usinng a new camera technology. Though the phone was not a success, it laid the framework for cameras in future Nokia devices.

In July 2013, Nokia introduced a new smartphone, the Lumia 1020, with a powerful 41-megapixel camera (last seen in the PureView 808) in a bid to catch up with rivals Samsung and Apple.

On September 3, 2013 Microsoft and Nokia announced that Microsoft is buying Nokia's devices and services business, and getting access to the company's patents, for a total of 5.44 billion euros ($7.2 billion) in an effort to expand its share of the smartphone market. Microsoft will pay 3.79 billion euros ($5 billion) for the Nokia unit that makes mobile phones, including its line of Lumia smartphones that run Windows Phone software.

Foraying into the phablet market, Nokia announced the launch of its first 6-inch smartphones - the Lumia 1320 and Lumia 1520.

Nokia introduced its fist tablet - Lumia 2520 - in 2013.

Nokia announced its first-ever Android-based smartphones early this year. The first three phones in the family - the Nokia X, X and XL - run on the new Nokia X software platform, that is based on Google's Android. These phones were later discontinued.

Nokia, on April 25, completed the 5.44 billion-euro ($7.5 billion) sale of its troubled cellphone and services division to Microsoft, ending a chapter in the former world leading cellphone maker's history that began with paper making in 1865.

In November 2014, Microsoft released the Lumia 535, the first Lumia phone without Nokia branding.

In the same month as the Lumia 535 launch, Nokia announced its plans to bring its brand back to consumers with a new tablet - the Android-based Nokia N1.

Last month, Nokia confirmed the acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent to build up its telecom equipment business to compete with market leader Ericsson.

And as we post this on the 150th anniversary of one of the biggest technology brands, there are numerous reports on the imminent sale of Nokia Oyj's map business, Here.

My Worst Interview Experience

 

Over on LifeHacker, they are sharing their worst interview experiences online. I never thought I would have something to share under this topic. Ironically, it happened just this last weekend.

I received an e-mail that I have been invited to attend a walk-in interview at the Indian Outsourcing company TechMahindra's Bangalore office. I was applying for a senior position, of an SME or Architect, and was told to appear anytime betwen 10 and 11AM. That word "anytime" should have alerted me, because it looked like this company really sells the "anything goes" culture.

I showed up at 10:30 AM. It was a Saturday, but the traffic was horrible. As I took the lift to the 3rd floor, I was trying to form a prepared answer as to my possible delay to show up. I go in, and was told to wait in the lobby. After 15 minutes, a spectacled guy asked us to walk in and sit in the employee's chairs on the floor. And..he announced nervously, the interview panel has not yet arrived !

Great, its now 11 AM, and the interviewers themselves have not shown up. So much for punctuality.

I wait.

 

And wait.

12:00

 

I now decide to walk up to the floor co-ordinator and enquire. I think his name is either Prithviraj or Chakravarti Srinivas Darukmalli.

Him: "I apologize sir. We have just started. It will take another 1 hour max for your turn."

Ok…I walk back.

1:00 PM…still no sign of being processed. I am now hungry.

Again , I continue waiting. There are others in front of me who are now getting restless. And worse, there are people behind me as well.

1:30 PM

I ask him how much more. The asshole assures me another 20 mins.

I walk OUT.

I go down the lift, pick my things and head home.

30 mins, I am home .Have a nice lunch with fish pollichathu which I picked up on the way.

Afternoon siesta.

 

About 3:30 pm, I get a call from an unknown number. Presumably, it is from the interivew venue. I didn't pick up, as I had left the phone on silent.

 

A company which does not practise punctuality is for me, the most un-professional. How can they expect us to deliver their software on time, if they can't even show up on time for their OWN requirement ?

One More Month for Jurassic World !