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 67 - bc

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

Distance: 7 from answer 66.

Answer 2

Answer 69 - Scheme

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

Distance of 7 with Answer 68: addition of newline, deletion of ~, newline and $, substitutions of ~ to ;, ~ to ) and # to ;

Answer 3

Answer 71 - Logo

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

Distance of 7 from Answer 70.

Online Interpreter

Answer 4

Answer 82 - Make

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

Distance 4 from Answer 81: add e \t del ; sub ?->\n
Tested on Ubuntu

Answer 5

Answer 87 - HQ9+-

#[]([.]c;main()
    eco Hello World!
#[;]:;#bye;dnl</>

Distance 7 from answer 86.

Unlike Hello, H9+, HQ9+ and HQ9++, H9Q+- actually prints Hello World!. The creator's website clearly says so, and it offers an interpreter (standard untar-make approach) which I have tested.

Answer 6

Answer 102 - Forobj

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

Distance 7 from Answer 101. (added ""%d""%)

An interpreter does not, in fact, exist. However, the code is fairly straightforward. It pushes a big string, then pops it ("..."%). It then pushes the string "Hello World!" and prints it (d). Lastly, it pushes another string and pops that one as well.

Answer 7

Answer 162 - KTurtle

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

Distance 6 from Answer 161

Answer 8

Answer 35 - Dash

ah="*#[.>]trac":;cat<<@
Hello World!
@

Distance 3 from answer 34.

Answer 9

Answer 38 - Groovy

//;ah="*#[.>]trac":;cat<<@
print"Hello World!"

7 distance from 37

Try it here

Answer 10

Answer 39 - CoffeeScript

#//;ah="*#[.>]trac":;cat<<@
alert "Hello World!"

6 distance from 38

Try it here

Answer 11

Answer 37 - NetLogo

;ah="*#[.>]trac":;cat<<@
type"Hello World!"

Distance 5 from from Answer 36

Answer 12

Answer 44 - GNU Octave

#ah="*#[.>]trac";cat<<
#&&alert 
disp "Hello World!"

Levenshtein distance from #43: 5 (1 removed, 4 replaced)

Answer 13

Answer 47 - newLisp

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

distance = 7

Answer 14

Answer 49 - SMT-LIBv2

;@echo o#[.>]trac";cat<<
;#&&alert 
(echo "Hello World!");\

Distance = 5

Answer 15

Answer 51 - Batsh

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

Distance = 7

Answer 16

Answer 53 - Applescript

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

Distance 6 from answer 52

Answer 17

Answer 56 - F#

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

7 distance from 55

Try it here

Answer 18

Answer 77 - Vimscript

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

Distance 7 from Answer 76

Answer 19

Answer 80 - mIRC script

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

Distance 7 from Answer 79: 1 comment marker (;), 6 removals ($e=""~).

Answer 20

Answer 81 - Microsoft Batch

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

Distance 7 from Answer 80: 3 additions, 4 cleanup.

Tested in Windows 7.

Answer 21

Answer 90 - Oz

%#[]([.]c;main()
   {Show 'Hello World!'}
%#[;]:;#bye;dnl</>

Distance: 6 to answer 89

Answer 22

Answer 108 - SmallBASIC

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

Distance 7 from Answer 107 (I could do it in 4, but I spent the rest on getting rid of unnecessary fluff like that annoying tab from the Makefile.)

Yes, SmallBASIC does not require closing strings.

Answer 23

Answer 124 - Swift

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

Distance 7 from answer 123.

Answer 24

Answer 125 - BeanShell

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

Distance from Answer 124 : 7

Trying to move towards Java

Answer 25

Answer 129 - AWK

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

Distance from Answer 128 : 7

Run it online here

Answer 26

Answer 157 - Improbable

#B00class jux{public static void main(String[] h){#
#System.Cont.Wrintln(//;\//Hello*}}print,cat<<<"#`Hello World!` ;}}//print#putsx;//-##[;]#bye</>%"

Distance from Answer 156 : 7

Everything

• in # ... # is a comment
• in ` ... ` is output to STDOUT
• after ; is ignored as program has exited

Answer 27

Answer 158 - wake

#B00class jux{public static void main(String[] h){#
#System.Cont.Wrintln(//;\//Hello*}}print,cat<<<
:"Hello World!"#` ;}}//print#putsx;//-##[;]#bye</>%"

Distance 5.

Answer 28

Answer 164 - Alice

(*#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 163

Answer 29

Answer 165 - SML/NJ

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

Distance 2 from Answer 164

This could be any SML dialect, including Alice — but answer 164 isn't valid SML: only Alice allows an unterminated comment.

(MLton is now within reach.)

Answer 30

Answer 166 - OCaml

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

Distance 7 from Answer 165