99 Bottles of Hello World
Here’s a different take on the common beginner programming task of writing a program to output “hello world.” Why not have the program print the lyrics to the children’s road trip song, 99 Bottles of Beer? There are currently 1,210 variations.
It may seem silly–and it is–but it’s also informative. Rather than just learning how to output a simple string, new programmers learn about looping, logic statements, and sometimes a little bit about the language’s structure.
Perl, unsurprisingly, may have the shortest implementation:
sub
b{[@b=(abs||No,bottle.”s”x!!++$_,of,beer),on,the,wall]}print
“@{+b},\n@b,\nTake one down, pass it around,\n@{+b}.\n”
for-pop||-99..-1
Unfortunately, many of the examples seem more like exercises in creating obscure and complex ways of outputting a simple song. They could be refactored to be more readable. It’s meant to be a fun site, yes, but it’s also informative. The examples that focus on the basic principles of the language will go furthest as a learning exercise.
If you’re more of a classic coder, check out the list of Hello World programs.
See also:
