[TUHS] Curly braces: An evolution of UNIX and C

[Clem Cole via TUHS]

below, I sent this comment to Thalia privately, but since Phill brought it
up I'll bring it here too:

On Wed, May 20, 2026 at 2:27 PM Thalia Archibald via TUHS <tuhs at tuhs.org>
wrote:

>
> I should have added it, but I decided against it, since UNIX style was to
> use
> lowercase and I didn't want to change it to "Hello, world!". It would work
> with
> the ed session.
>
> > In the B section, instead of
> > > The 1973 B language tutorial for the H6070 had the first-ever “hello,
> world” program
> >
> > I'd say that it was the first known/documented example of hello world.
> >
> > https://research.swtch.com/b-lang
> > From 2008 says
> > > Brian Kernighan's 1973 B tutorial contains what is probably the very
> first “hello, world” program.
> >
> > which makes the same conclustion but hedges whether it was in fact THE
> FIRST.
>
> Good point.
>
The "hello world" idea is from Martin Richards early BCPL
documentation/papers, which preceded bwk's tutorial.   That said, Brian
says he didn't read any of them, but they're also there in Richard's later
BCPL book, which was made by taking documents that Martin or his
collaborators had written earlier.  But as the great Tom Lehrer noted in
his song: "Lobachevsky" —  *"My name in Dnepropetrovsk is cursed, When he
finds out I publish first."*