Hello World in 10 Minutes
published on 7/18/2008 9:09:04 PM

Ten minutes! You might be thinking that this is an awfully long time for a stinking “Hello World” program. Ten minutes is not a hard and fast rule. This is just the time it takes to download a small framework and print the “Hello World” message on the screen. I believe that if you can download the framework and create the “Hello World” application in under 10 minutes then that framework is worth checking out.

Off course you have to categorize different frameworks with respect to their physical size. So, there can be a 10 minutes “Hello World” and a 1 hour “Hello World” but the idea is the same.

I tested this theory using different frameworks. My first choice was IronPython. Please note that I have never written a single line of code in IronPython. I downloaded the IronPython framework which took about 5-10 seconds. I unzipped the file and clicked on the “ipy” icon label “IronPython Console”. Take a look at the screen shot below:


 
This pops up the IronPython console. As, I said before that I have never written a single line of code in IronPython but for some reason I knew that to print the “Hello World” message I have to use either “puts” or “print”. And here is the result.


 

So, I was managed to run my extremely complicated “Hello World” application in under a minute. This is good because now I know that the framework works and I can learn more about it to be more productive.

Let’s take a look at another dynamic language “Ruby”. The best part about testing out the Ruby language is that you don’t have to download anything. Just visit the Ruby website and you can try out the framework online.

 


Now, let’s talk about some frameworks that are so hard to setup that “Hello World” seems to be a mile jump. I am talking about the Silverlight. I know I have been ranting on this for a long time.

Silverlight Project Busted in Visual Studio.NET 2008

Silverlight Runtime Installation a Big Mess

Silverlight BETA 1 Installation a Big Mess

Silverlight may not belong to the same class as IronPython or Ruby but still it performs the worst among its running peers, Macromedia Flash. Check out Silverlight BETA 1 Installation a Big Mess.

I think the main reason for this mess is the Silverlight Installation. Once, you install all the alpha tools and start to run the application an error will greet you saying that you must download a different version of Silverlight to view the page. It seems like we are still living in the dark ages when the developer has to manually go and uninstall the older or BETA versions. Why this can’t be included in the Silverlight installation itself?

For me this just pushes me away from the Silverlight technology. If starting out is this hard then who knows what lies ahead!