Evolution of "Hello World!"

Question

This contest is officially over, the winner is jimmy23013. Congratulations!

The challenge is to make a program that prints Hello World! to stdout. The catch is that your program must have a Levenshtein distance of 7 or less from the program in the answer submitted before yours.

How This Will Work

Below I have already submitted the first answer using Python: print("Hello World!").

The next person to answer must modify the string print("Hello World!") with up to 7 single character insertions, deletions, or substitutions so that when it is run in any language that hasn't been used so far (only Python in this case) the output is still Hello World!.

For example the second answerer might use 1 substitution (r -> u), 2 deletions (in), and 1 insertion (s) to make the string puts("Hello World!") which prints Hello World! when run in Ruby.

The third person to answer must do the same thing in a new language, but using the program of the second person's answer (e.g. puts("Hello World!")) as their starting point. The fourth answer will be in relation to the third answer and so on.

This will continue on until everyone get stuck because there is no new language the last answer's program can be made to run in by only changing 7 characters. The communal goal is to see how long we can keep this up, so try not to make any obscure or unwarranted character edits (this is not a requirement however).

Formatting

Please format your post like this:

# Answer N - [language]

    [code]

[notes, explanation, observations, whatever]

Where N is the answer number (increases incrementally, N = 1, 2, 3,...).

You do not have to tell which exact characters were changed. Just make sure the Levenshtein distance is from 0 to 7.

Rules

The key thing to understand about this challenge is that only one person can answer at a time and each answer depends on the one before it.

There should never be two answers with the same N. If two people happen to simultaneously answer for some N, the one who answered later (even if it's a few seconds difference) should graciously delete their answer.

Furthermore...

• A user may only submit one answer per 8 hour period. i.e. Each of your answers must be at least 8 hours apart. (This is to prevent users from constantly watching the question and answering as much as possible.)
• A user may not submit two answers in a row. (e.g. since I submitted answer 1 I can't do answer 2, but I could do 3.)
• Each answer must be in a different programming language.
  • Different versions of the same language count as the same language.
  • Languages count as distinct if they are traditionally called by two different names. (There may be some ambiguities here but don't let that ruin the contest.)
• You may only use tabs, newlines, and printable ASCII. (Newlines count as one character.)
• The output should only be Hello World! and no other characters (a leading/trailing newline is not an issue).
• If your language doesn't has stdout use whatever is commonly used for quickly outputting text (e.g. console.log or alert in JavaScript).

Please make sure your answer is valid. We don't want to realize there's a break in the chain five answers up. Invalid answers should be fixed quickly or deleted before there are additional answers.

Don't edit answers unless absolutely necessary.

Scoring

Once things settle down, the user who submits the most (valid) answers wins. Ties go to the user with the most cumulative up-votes.

Leaderboard: (out of date)

(user must have at least 2 valid answers)

11 Answers

• Optimizer - CJam, Groovy, HTML, Forth, Rebol, Markdown, CASIO BASIC, SpeakEasy, REXX, RegXy, Pawn
• jimmy23013 - GNU dc, Zsh, Burlesque, bc, Hack, GDB, QBasic, MediaWiki Markup, itflabtijtslwi, Squirrel, AGOL 68

7 Answers

• Nit - APL, Clipper, Falcon, MUMPS, FreeBASIC, csh, Dart
• Timmy - Lua, Lisp, Oz, Algoid, KTurtle, Alice, OCaml

6 Answers

• Stacey - VHDL, GNU Octave, M4, Logo, Microsoft Batch, Matlab
• Dennis - Dash, tcsh, TeX, ///, HQ9+-, Alore

5 Answers

• plannapus - Stata, Scheme, SQLite, Scala, Suneido
• Pietu1998 - PHP, sh, ALAGUF, Cardinal, Grin

4 Answers

• ypnypn - NetLogo, Mouse, Salmon, Maple
• resueman - Clojure, Emacs Lisp, Vimscript, VBScript
• Timtech - AutoLisp, Geom++, BogusForth, owl

3 Answers

• BrunoJ - CoffeeScript, F#, Betterave

2 Answers

• Mig - Extended BF Type III, TCL
• Calvin's Hobbies - Python, E
• Sp3000 - Racket, Pyth
• grc - Haskell, Turing
• es1024 - Nimrod, ksh
• FireFly - FALSE, mIRC script
• g-rocket - AppleScript, LiveCode
• Oriol - AMPL, PARI/GP
• nneonneo - Boo, Caché ObjectScript

Languages used so far:

1. Python
2. CJam
3. PHP
4. Pyth
5. Perl
6. Befunge 98
7. Bash
8. Nimrod
9. Ruby
10. GNU dc
11. Golfscript
12. Mathematica
13. R
14. Lua
15. Sage
16. Julia
17. Scilab
18. JavaScript
19. VHDL
20. HyperTalk
21. Haskell
22. LOLCODE
23. APL
24. M30W
25. Stata
26. TI-BASIC (NSpire)
27. ActionScript 2
28. J
29. PowerShell
30. K
31. Visual FoxPro
32. VBA
33. Extended BF Type III
34. Zsh
35. Dash
36. Clojure
37. NetLogo
38. Groovy
39. CoffeeScript
40. Clipper
41. B.A.S.I.C.
42. FALSE
43. fish (shell)
44. GNU Octave
45. TCL
46. E
47. newLisp
48. Lisp
49. SMT-LIBv2
50. Racket
51. Batsh
52. tcsh
53. AppleScript
54. Mouse
55. Pixie
56. F#
57. Falcon
58. Burlesque
59. HTML
60. SGML
61. M4
62. MUMPS
63. TeX
64. Forth
65. Salmon
66. Turing
67. bc
68. Betterave
69. Scheme
70. Emacs Lisp
71. Logo
72. AutoLISP
73. ///
74. Rebol
75. Maple
76. FreeBASIC
77. Vimscript
78. ksh
79. Hack
80. mIRC
81. Batch
82. Make
83. Markdown
84. sh
85. GDB
86. csh
87. HQ9+-
88. Postscript
89. Matlab
90. Oz
91. CASIO BASIC
92. VBScript
93. QBasic
94. Processing
95. C
96. Rust 0.13
97. Dart
98. Kaffeine
99. Algoid
100. AMPL
101. Alore
102. Forobj
103. T-SQL
104. LiveCode
105. Euphoria
106. SpeakEasy
107. MediaWiki
108. SmallBASIC
109. REXX
110. SQLite
111. TPP
112. Geom++
113. SQL (postgres)
114. itflabtijtslwi
115. RegXy
116. Opal.rb
117. Squirrel
118. Pawn
119. Scala
120. Rebmu
121. Boo
122. PARI/GP
123. Red
124. Swift
125. BeanShell
126. Vala
127. Pike
128. Suneido
129. AWK
130. Neko
131. AngelScript
132. gosu
133. V
134. ALAGUF
135. BogusForth
136. Flaming Thunder
137. Caché ObjectScript
138. owl
139. Cardinal
140. Parser
141. Grin
142. Kitten
143. TwoDucks
144. Asymptote
145. CAT
146. IDL
147. Tiny
148. WTFZOMFG
149. Io
150. MuPAD
151. Java
152. Onyx
153. JBoss
154. S+
155. Hexish
156. yash
157. Improbable
158. wake
159. brat
160. busybox built-in shell
161. gammaplex
162. KTurtle
163. AGOL 68
164. Alice
165. SML/NJ
166. OCaml
167. CDuce
168. Underload
169. Simplex v.0.6
170. Minkolang 0.9
171. Fexl 7.0.3
172. Jolf
173. Vitsy
174. Y
175. Retina
176. Codename Dragon
177. Seriously
178. Reng v.3.3
179. Fuzzy Octo Guacamole
180. 05AB1E

^{(Feel free to edit these lists if they are incorrect or out of date.)}

This question works best when you sort by oldest.

NOTE: This is a trial question for a new challenge type I have in mind where each answer depends on the last and increases in difficulty. Come discuss it with us in the chatroom for this question or in meta.

Answer 1

Answer 163 - ALGOL 68

#class jux{public static void main(String[] h){#
#System.Console.Writeln(//@\//Hello*}}print,cat<<#
print("Hello World!")#X` ;}}//printputsx;//-##E;]bye</>%#

Distance 7 from answer 162.

Answer 2

Answer 173 - Vitsy

Distance 7 from answer 172

4mrZ"#03w(*#class jux!{public static void main(String[] h){#\
#System.Console.Writeln(//@\//Hello*}}print,cat<<#*)\
put"
a
"Hello World!";#(O).g!)S(#X` ;}}//printputsx;//-##E;]bye</>#*)

Oh, geez, that was easier than I expected it to be.

Explanation:

4mrZ inserted (4 chars), which calls the 4th index of code (the 5th line), reverses the stack, and then outputs everything in the stack as a char. I can get away with no newline due to the # character, which will teleport to the 90th character in the first line (which doesn't exist) (Z in ASCII), throwing an error and exiting the program.

Newline inserted before "Hello... (one char) to designate a new method line.

" substituted for ' at the end of World!' (one char) to end the quotes.

; inserted after the newly substituted " (one char), which is a return character. This leaves Hello, World! on the stack.

More interestingly, if you want to know what Vitsy is actually reading, here's the verbose mode version (any lines starting with : designate a newline):

push 4;
goto top method;
reverse stack;
output stack as chars;
toggle double quote;
teleport to top instruction;
push 0;
push 3;
wait top seconds;
if (int) top is 0;
multiply top two;
teleport to top instruction;
push 12;
push length of stack;
push 10;
push inverse sine of top;
push inverse sine of top;
 ;
j;
flatten top two stacks;
x;
!;
rotate stack left;
push whether (int) top item is prime;
flatten top two stacks;
push 11;
push length of stack;
push input item;
push 12;
 ;
push inverse sine of top;
push inverse tangent of top;
push 10;
push inverse tangent of top;
push input item;
push 12;
 ;
save top as temporary variable;
capture stack as object with next;
push input item;
push 13;
 ;
goto top method;
push 10;
push input item;
eval(stack);
if (int) top is 0;
push sine of top;
push inverse tangent of top;
reverse stack;
push input item;
eval(stack);
g;
begin recursive area;
end recursive area;
 ;
factorize top item;
if (int) top is not 0;
rotate stack left;
teleport to top instruction;
repeat next instruction set top times;
:teleport to top instruction;
push sine of top;
push number of stacks;
push inverse sine of top;
push inverse tangent of top;
push 14;
goto top method;
.;
push cosine of top;
capture stack as object with next;
eval(stack);
push inverse sine of top;
capture stack as object with next;
push length of stack;
push 14;
.;
STDIN;
reverse stack;
push input item;
push inverse tangent of top;
push 14;
push length of stack;
eval(stack);
if (int) top is 0;
divide top two;
divide top two;
get top specified item;
repeat next instruction set top times;
divide top two;
divide top two;
push all ints between second to top and top;
push 14;
push length of stack;
push length of stack;
capture stack as object with next;
multiply top two;
rotate stack right;
rotate stack right;
push whether (int) top item is prime;
reverse stack;
push input item;
eval(stack);
push inverse tangent of top;
,;
push 12;
push 10;
push inverse tangent of top;
go backward;
go backward;
teleport to top instruction;
multiply top two;
if (int) top is not 0;
repeat next instruction set top times;
:push whether (int) top item is prime;
flatten top two stacks;
push inverse tangent of top;
toggle double quote;
:push 10;
:toggle double quote;
push all ints between second to top and top;
push 14;
push length of stack;
push length of stack;
capture stack as object with next;
 ;
STDIN;
capture stack as object with next;
reverse stack;
push length of stack;
push 13;
!;
toggle double quote;
generic exit;
teleport to top instruction;
if (int) top is 0;
output top as character;
if (int) top is not 0;
.;
g;
!;
if (int) top is not 0;
push sine of top;
if (int) top is 0;
teleport to top instruction;
remove top;
`;
 ;
generic exit;
rotate stack right;
rotate stack right;
divide top two;
divide top two;
push whether (int) top item is prime;
reverse stack;
push input item;
eval(stack);
push inverse tangent of top;
push whether (int) top item is prime;
flatten top two stacks;
push inverse tangent of top;
push inverse sine of top;
x;
generic exit;
divide top two;
divide top two;
subtract top two;
teleport to top instruction;
teleport to top instruction;
push e;
generic exit;
end recursive area;
push 11;
push number of stacks;
push 14;
go backward;
divide top two;
go forward;
teleport to top instruction;
multiply top two;
if (int) top is not 0;

Try it Online!

Answer 3

Answer 180, 05AB1E

i#^.`4mrZ"#03w(*#class jux!{public static void main(String[]ih){#\
#System.Console.Writeln(//@\//Hello*}}print,cat<<#*)\
#put"

#^
is~ob]"Hello World!"q@)
gx`#(O)X.g!)S(#X` ;}}//printputs;//-##E;]bye</>#*)`kX

Distance 4 from Answer 179. Try it online!

Explanation

The program starts with an if statement. Since the stack is empty, that makes all of i#^.`4mrZ"#03w(*#class jux!{public static void main(String[ no-ops. When it gets to ], it closes all if statements, loops, etc. But, right ahead of that is another if. Once again the stack is still empty, so all of

ih){#\
#System.Console.Writeln(//@\//Hello*}

is a huge no-op. Next, p checks if top of stack is prime. Yet again the stack is empty, so it's also a no-op. Same goes with r; it just reverses the (empty) stack. Then the program encounters i with an empty stack again, so

int,cat<<#*)\
#put"

#^
is~ob

is yet another no-op. Again, the ] exits all if statements, loops, etc. Next 05AB1E parses "Hello World!" as a literal string and pushes it to the stack. Finally, q exits the program, making the rest of the code a no-op, and implicitly outputs top of stack.

Answer 4

Answer 182 - Vyxal Ṫ

kh\!#^.`4mrZ#03w(*#class jux!{public static void main(String[]ih){#\
#System.Console.Writeln(//@\//Hello*}}print,cat<<#*)\
#put

#^
is~ob]"Hello World!"q@)
gx`#(O)X.g!)S(#X` ;}}//printputs;//-##E;]bye</>#*)`kX

Try it Online!

Distance of 4 from the last answer.

Due to a parsing bug in the current version of Vyxal, everything after the kh\! is commented out, including the last two lines.

Answer 5

Answer 46 - E

#ah="*#[.>]trac";cat<<
#&&alert 
println("Hello World!")#\

Distance 7.

I haven't actually run this. It may be that # comments must only have whitespace in front of them, in which case this is invalid, but I really doubt that.

Answer 6

Answer 52 - tcsh

#//echo o[.>]tac;cat<<;#&&alert
(printf "Hello World!");

Distance 7 from answer 51.

Answer 7

Answer 55 - Pixie; fallback option: ClojureCLR

"//echo o[.>]c;cat<<;#&&alert"(printf
"Hello World!")

Distance 3 from answer 54

The language is in early alpha and seem to have only REPL. Example session:

$ ./pixie-vm 
Pixie 0.1 - Interactive REPL
(linux, gcc)
----------------------------
user => "//echo o[.>]c;cat<<;#&&alert"(printf
//echo o[.>]c;cat<<;#&&alert
user => "Hello World!")
12
Hello World!user => 
$ 

When run outside REPL, I expect it to output just "Hello World!", without additional things.

The language is inspired by Clojure. The script works in Clojure too (without messy additional REPL output)

Here is example of ClojureCLR session (used clojure-clr-1.3.0-Debug-3.5.zip):

$ mono Clojure.Main.exe hello.clj ; echo
Hello World!
$

Answer 8

Answer 57 - Falcon

//echo o[.>]c;cat<<;#&&alert"(
> "Hello World!"//)

Distance: 7

Answer 9

Answer 65 - Salmon

# %;dnl<vsh  o[.]c;cat;#&&alert" ">w ".( 
"Hello World!"!#bye";dnl</vsh>

Distance 7 from Answer 64

Answer 10

Answer 66 - Turing

%# %;dnl<vsh  o[.]c;cat;#&&alert" ">w ".( 
put "Hello World!" %!#bye";dnl</vsh>

Distance: 7

Answer 11

Answer 72 - AutoLISP

;<vsh  o[.]c;cat;#&&alert" ">w "
(princ "Hello World!");%!#bye";dnl</vsh>~

Distance of 7 from Answer 71 (3 deletions of random stuff).

P.S. For those who argue about invalidity of different dialects of Lisp, you should post on the first dialect..

Answer 12

Answer 74 - Rebol

;<vsh  o[.]c;cat;#&&alert"  "
print "Hello World!";%!#bye";dnl</vsh>~

Distance from Answer 73 - 7

Anything followed by ; till newline is comment in Rebol

Answer 13

Answer 75 - Maple

#sh  o[.]c;cat;#&&alert"  "print 
"Hello World!";#bye";dnl</vsh>~

Distance 7 from Answer 74.

Answer 14

Answer 78 - ksh

#sh  o[.]c;cat;#&&alert"  "
echo -en "Hello World!"
#";#bye;dnl</vsh>~

Distance 7 from Answer 77.

Answer 15

Answer 84 - sh

#[]([.]c;cat;#&&alert"  "
    echo Hello "World!"
#[;]:;#bye;dnl</vsh>

Distance from answer 83: 7

• Added #
• Removed @
• Changed ( to
• Added 2 "'s
• Added #

Yes, bash and dash have been done, but I'm just taking the opportunity here as sh has not...

Added the quotes just to get some difficulty up.

Answer 16

Answer 94 - Processing

//[]([.]c;main()    {
print("Hello World!");
//#[;]#bye;dnl</>

Distance 7 from answer 93

Answer 17

Answer 97 - Dart

//[]([.]#i
main()    {
    print('Hello World!');}
//#[;]#bye;dnl</>

Distance: 7

It's about time we got an #include of some sort.

Answer 18

Answer 101 - Alore

--#[][.]#i
--#main()    {
    Print("Hello World!");
--#[;]#bye;dnl</>

Distance 7 from answer 100.

Answer 19

Answer 103 - T-SQL

--#[][.]#i
--#main()    {
    Print('Hello World!');
--#[;]#bye;dnl</>"%

Distance 7 from Answer 102.

Answer 20

Answer 104 - LiveCode

--#[][.]#i
--#main()    {
    put("Hello World!")
--#[;]#bye;dnl</>"%

should be run from the message box in multiline mode

Distance 7 from Answer 103.

Answer 21

Answer 105 - Euphoria

--#[][.]#i
--#main()    {
puts(1,"Hello World!")
--#[;]#bye;dnl</>"%

Distance 4 from Answer 104

Answer 22

Answer 106 - SpeakEasy

$ --#[][.]#i--#main()    {puts(1,
"Hello World!"
$ --#[;]#bye;dnl</>"%

Distance from Answer 105 : 7

Answer 23

Answer 111 - TPP

--##[][.]#i--#main(){puts(select"
Hello World!
--##[;]#bye;dnl</>%

Distance 7 from Answer 110: moved select " to the line above and removed the space (2 deletion2), changed --# to --## on both lines (2), removed the "; from the end of the second line (2), and changed the space between select and " to a newline (1). As my sed post was deleted, I am assuming that I can post without waiting 8 more hours. This doesn't print "Hello World!", but displays it instead. If this is an unsatisfactory answer, let me know.

Answer 24

Answer 112 - Geom++

"--##[][.]#i--#main(){puts(select"
" Hello World! "
"--##[;]#bye;dnl</>%"

Distance 7 from Answer 111 (7 additions)

Yes the spaces are required and no they're not printed

Answer 25

Answer 115 - RegXy

a/-##[][/]#i--#main(){pu/s(
sel/.*/Hello World!/ 
b/"-##[;]#bye;nl</>%"

Distance from Answer 114 : 7

RegXy is based on Regular Expressions, perl styled.

label/regex/target_label means if the regex matches, go to the target_label line

label/regex/replacement/ means replace the regex match with replacement text.

Some more links

Answer 26

Answer 122 - PARI/GP

\\#{//-##[][/]#i--#main(){println(
\\#//sel/.*}}
print("Hello World!") 
\\#;//"-##[;]#bye</>%"

Distance 6 from Answer 121.

Tested using http://www.compileonline.com/execute_pari_online.php

Answer 27

Answer 123 - Red

;\#{//-##[][/]#i--#main(){println(
;\#//sel/.*}}
print "Hello World!"
;\#;//"-##[;]#bye</>%

Distance from Answer 122 : 7

Answer 28

Answer 130 - Neko

//#class{//-ta[][ void main(){//println(;\#//Hello*}}
END
{$print("Hello World!")}
//#;//"-##[;]#bye</>%

Distance 7 from answer 129.

Answer 29

Answer 132 - gosu

//#class jux{//-ta[][ void main(){//println(;\#//Hello*}}

print("Hello World!");
//#;//"-##[;]#bye</>%

Distance 6 from Answer 131

Answer 30

Answer 133 - V

"/#class jux{//-ta[][ void main(){//println(;\#//Hello*}}

print""Hello World!"puts
#;//"-##[;]#bye</>%

Distance 7 from answer 132.