
Hello World, 1978 - danso
https://www.artsy.net/artwork/brian-kernighan-hello-world
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oneeyedpigeon
I'm glad Brian Kernighan has as much trouble writing braces by hand as us mere
mortals do.

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kozukumi
The trick to writing braces is this - for a { write a 5 than a 2 below and for
a } write a 2 then a 5 below. Practice it a little and you will be writing
perfect braces in no time.

Also it is quite amusing how many people love this trick when I tell them
after they have spent a decade or more struggling.

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AdmiralAsshat
For posterity, he could have also made a print of his "Hello, World" program
written in B from 1972:

[https://code.google.com/p/go/source/browse/src/pkg/debug/mac...](https://code.google.com/p/go/source/browse/src/pkg/debug/macho/testdata/hello.b?spec=svnf6182e5abf5eb0c762dddbb18f8854b7e350eaeb&name=f6182e5abf5e&r=f6182e5abf5eb0c762dddbb18f8854b7e350eaeb)

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davidjhall
Just curious - does anyone know how much it went for?

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MarcusP
Tweet here saying >$7,000:
[https://twitter.com/zarkadakis/status/582594530135924736](https://twitter.com/zarkadakis/status/582594530135924736)

Random reddit comment saying $8,500:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/2zluh1/brian_k...](https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/2zluh1/brian_kernighan_hello_world_1978/cptnd8d)

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yarrel
"Please note: this lot includes a code license"

For a fragment shorter than a tweet. It's a stretch IMO.

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krallja
Also: "This lot also includes a commemorative 3D-printed Babylonian styled
tablet containing the password to a private Github repository where the buyer
may access the full source of the Hello World algorithm and an image of the
lot."

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amelius
It seems that he forgot to include stdio.h.

~~~
tacostakohashi
There were no function prototypes in K&R C, these were added in the ANSI C89
standard.

Even now, prototypes are optional in C (as opposed to C++), so this program is
still valid, although it's likely to trigger some compiler warnings.

~~~
cygx
_Even now, prototypes are optional in C_

It's been illegal in standard C since 1999.

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omoikane
Excellent alignment of braces. Also, he appears to be using a 3-space indent,
but that's not so obvious due to proportional font.

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sytelus
One thing that has bothered me is that open brace { for functions starts at
new line but for all other statements it starts on same line in K&R style. Why
not just be consistent?

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pkolaczk
Because for some people it looks better that way. For simple statements, I
often find placing braces on their own lines introduces too much of free
space. With a few things nested it often looks as if there were more braces
than the code itself. And also, I like to group some statements together (by
not having free space between them) and suddenly having to separate them by a
free-standing brace breaks it. Of course all of this is just a matter of
taste.

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markild
> This lot also includes a commemorative 3D-printed Babylonian styled tablet
> containing the password to a private Github repository where the buyer may
> access the full source of the Hello World algorithm and an image of the lot.

Too bad it's private. It would suck to have to rethink that algorithm from
scratch...

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pionar
Perhaps the person who won the auction will make it public? That would be a
great contribution to society!!! /s

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TeMPOraL
They'll probably file a patent for it, to best advance the arts and sciences.
/s

