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A whole new meaning to "Hello World!"

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POSTED BY: WALTER ISIDRO, MSS Developer

One of the first languages I learned as a programmer was C, and in learning that language, I encountered a string that became all too familiar to the programming community.

“Hello World!”

So common, that I’d see it everywhere when I started to learn other languages. And every time, I’d think, “Of course, what else could it possibly be?!” No introductory book in their right mind would ever think of using anything else, lest they break the old time-honored tradition, where NOT to do so is just taboo!

I’d become so familiar with it, I’d feel my eyes glaze over just seeing this piece of text, trying to ignore it – staring back at me so old and tiresome. I’d begrudgingly type it into my first sample program in whatever new computer language. Sometimes changing it to something different like, “Hello There.” or “Hello Cruel World!” Or if I was in a hurry a shorter “foo”, maybe just something my hand could spit out quickly like “asdfasdf.”

Until one day, I opened up the Speech SDK and there was a sample application I compiled, built and ran. Out of my computer she spoke.

“Hello World!”

Her voice so soft, calming and beautiful. She TALKED to me!

Almost singing her praises to my amateur speech application coding accomplishment! (It was so easy; all I did was comment out half a dozen lines!)

A new life breathed into an old weary phrase, announcing itself in this new world of speech applications development. I welcomed hearing the phase, playing it over again, listening in wonder. And, as anyone else would do, I changed the text to something more interesting.

“Hello, Walter!”

I laughed, thinking of the different possibilities that which a computer might address its owner (or a customer).

“What a nice voice she has” I thought to myself, now completely distracted from coding.

“I wonder what she looks like?”

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