The comp.* hierarchy is a major class of newsgroups in Usenet, containing all newsgroups whose name begins with "comp.", organized hierarchically. It is one of the Big 8 (originally Big 7) Usenet hierarchies, formalized during the Great Renaming of 1986–1987.
comp.* groups discuss various computer, technology, and programming issues. Some groups can even offer peer-to-peer technical support. The hierarchy covers topics ranging from programming languages (e.g., comp.lang.c, comp.lang.python, comp.lang.java.help), operating systems (e.g., comp.os.linux.misc, comp.os.minix), hardware architecture (comp.arch), artificial intelligence (comp.ai), theoretical computer science (comp.theory), software engineering (comp.software-eng), and many other computing-related subjects.
The hierarchy is structured such that each newsgroup name begins with "comp." followed by a series of increasingly specific subcategories separated by dots. For example, comp.lang.c refers to the C programming language under the "language" subcategory of the "comp" hierarchy.
The comp.* hierarchy is one of the original top-level categories in Usenet, alongside humanities, misc, news, rec, sci, soc, and talk (the Big 8). It remains one of the most active and widely recognized Usenet hierarchies.
