1. The canonical minimal test message in the C/Unix universe.
2. Any of the minimal programs that emit this message (a
representative sample in various languages can be found at
http://www.latech.edu/~acm/helloworld/). Traditionally, the first
program a C coder is supposed to write in a new environment is one
that just prints "hello, world" to standard output (and indeed it is
the first example program in {K&R}). Environments that generate an
unreasonably large executable for this trivial test or which require
a {hairy} compiler-linker invocation to generate it are considered to
{lose} (see {X}).
3. Greeting uttered by a hacker making an entrance or requesting
information from anyone present. "Hello, world! Is the LAN back up
yet?"
[glossary]
[Reference(s) to this entry by made by: {BCPL}{hello sailor!}{marbles}{noddy}{Obfuscated C Contest}]