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We all know “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” used as benchmark for printing and fonts.

I wonder if there is a similar “Lazy Dog” for Programming Languages.

There are so many different programming languages, with all kinds of features and syntaxs, similar or different. The problem is: the user will be confused when using different languages at the same time.

Although plenty of differences between different languages, there must be something in common, i.e. a task or routine. If we implement the same task in different languages, and try to cover most frequently used features, then the language learning or comparison will become much more easy.

This kind of programme doesn't need to be very long, just like a tutorial but be common and abstract enough. Does it exist?

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  • 3
    Hello World?
    – Dan Pichelman
    Jun 20, 2013 at 19:13
  • @Dan, to be fair, printing is a little trivial.
    – Sean Allred
    Jun 20, 2013 at 19:17
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    Any single short program would have to gloss over 90% of the language features. A large suite of programs may be more appropriate - and that exists at rosettacode.org
    – user7043
    Jun 20, 2013 at 19:22
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    @delnan, you should make that an answer.
    – Karl Bielefeldt
    Jun 20, 2013 at 19:53
  • @KarlBielefeldt Done.
    – user7043
    Jun 20, 2013 at 20:04

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Any single short program would have to gloss over 90% of the language features. Most programming languages are large enough that even a half hour talk can only highlight the key distinguishing characteristics. A suite of small-ish programs is more appropriate for exposition and comparison. Rosetta Code is precisely that: A large number of problems are described, and idiomatic solutions in numerous languages are contributed (it's a wiki).

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