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29 lines
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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><title>Real Programmer</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="../../jargon.css" type="text/css"/><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.61.0"/><link rel="home" href="../index.html" title="The Jargon File"/><link rel="up" href="../R.html" title="R"/><link rel="previous" href="real-operating-system.html" title="real operating system"/><link rel="next" href="Real-Soon-Now.html" title="Real Soon Now"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">Real Programmer</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="real-operating-system.html">Prev</a><EFBFBD></td><th width="60%" align="center">R</th><td width="20%" align="right"><EFBFBD><a accesskey="n" href="Real-Soon-Now.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><dt><a id="Real-Programmer"/><dt xmlns="" id="Real-Programmer"><b>Real Programmer</b>: <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="grammar">n.</span></dt></dt><dd><p> [indirectly, from the book <i class="citetitle">Real Men Don't Eat
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Quiche</i>] A particular sub-variety of hacker: one possessed of a
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flippant attitude toward complexity that is arrogant even when justified by
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experience. The archetypal <span class="firstterm">Real
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Programmer</span> likes to program on the <a href="../B/bare-metal.html"><i class="glossterm">bare
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metal</i></a> and is very good at same, remembers the binary opcodes
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for every machine he has ever programmed, thinks that HLLs are sissy, and
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uses a debugger to edit his code because full-screen editors are for wimps.
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Real Programmers aren't satisfied with code that hasn't been tuned into a
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state of <a href="../T/tense.html"><i class="glossterm">tense</i></a>ness just short of rupture. Real
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Programmers never use comments or write documentation: “<span class="quote">If it was
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hard to write</span>”, says the Real Programmer, “<span class="quote">it should be hard
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to understand.</span>” Real Programmers can make machines do things that
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were never in their spec sheets; in fact, they are seldom really happy
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unless doing so. A Real Programmer's code can awe with its fiendish
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brilliance, even as its crockishness appalls. Real Programmers live on
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junk food and coffee, hang line-printer art on their walls, and terrify the
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crap out of other programmers — because someday, somebody else might
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have to try to understand their code in order to change it. Their
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successors generally consider it a <a href="../G/Good-Thing.html"><i class="glossterm">Good Thing</i></a> that
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there aren't many Real Programmers around any more. For a famous (and
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somewhat more positive) portrait of a Real Programmer, see <a href="../story-of-mel.html" title="The Story of Mel">The Story of Mel'</a> in Appendix A. The term
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itself was popularized by a letter to the editor in the July 1983
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Datamation titled <i class="citetitle">Real Programmers Don't Use Pascal</i>
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by Ed Post, still circulating on Usenet and Internet in on-line
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form.</p><p>Typing <i class="citetitle">Real Programmers Don't Use Pascal</i> into
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a web search engine should turn up a copy.</p></dd><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="real-operating-system.html">Prev</a><EFBFBD></td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="../R.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"><EFBFBD><a accesskey="n" href="Real-Soon-Now.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">real operating system<65></td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"><EFBFBD>Real Soon Now</td></tr></table></div></body></html>
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