3 ms·
Ask HN: Hello, World
People always talk about coding "Hello, World!" as a rite of initiation in a new programming language, but some folks have more elaborate programs/algorithms that they implement when learning a new language as a benchmark for their language learning (https://www.xavierllora.net/2014/03/22/yet-another-cga-implementation-now-in-haskell./)
What is the program you always code in a new language to test how much you've learned?
- ColinWright 6y agoThe program "Hello World" isn't anything to do with learning the language, it's about: * How do I create a program? * How do I store a program? * How do I run a program? * How do I get the program to output something? So your first statement seems to miss the mark. To answer your question, if I'm learning a new language it's usually because I have a specific problem to solve, so I write "Hello World", and then start to grow the program into what I need. I don't have a toy problem to implement as a test. Probably not the answer you wanted.
- joaogui1 6y ago* How do I create a program (in this language)? * How do I store a program? * How do I run a program (in this language)? * How do I get the program to output something (in this language)? You don't run C programs by calling python a.c, you run them by first compiling and then running the result. And yeah, I put the link there to illustrate what I was talking about, and it's not about why and how you learn a new programming language.
- karmakaze 6y agoIt's usually either: arbitrary like Advent of Code or Project Euler to see what it's like using the new language for sorts of things I know how I'd do in ones I normally use; or start/port my latest project idea. Most often the back-end to some web app that does something specific or perhaps a library to see how far a bad type system can go (e.g. typesafe SQL queries in Java vs Kotlin or F#).