What’s so important about the “Hello, World!” program? Its purpose is to get us acquainted with the basic tools of programming. We tend to do an extremely simple example, such as “Hello, World!,” whenever we approach a new tool. That way, we separate our learning into two parts: first we learn the basics of our tools with a trivial program, and later we learn about more complicated programs without being distracted by our tools. Learning the tools and the language simultaneously is far harder than doing first one and then the other. This approach to simplifying learning a complex task by breaking it into a series of small (and more manageable) steps is not limited to programming and computers. It is common and useful in most areas of life, especially in those that involve some practical skill.