catflap.org Online Dictionary Query

  Real Programmer
       
           (From the book "Real Men Don't Eat Quiche") A
          variety of hacker possessed of a flippant attitude toward
          complexity that is arrogant even when justified by experience.
          The archetypal "Real Programmer" likes to program on the bare
          metal and is very good at it, remembers the binary op codes
          for every machine he has ever programmed, thinks that
          high-level languages are sissy, and uses a debugger to
          edit his code because full-screen editors are for wimps.  Real
          Programmers aren't satisfied with code that hasn't been
          bummed into a state of tenseness just short of rupture.
       
          Real Programmers never use comments or write
          documentation: "If it was hard to write", says the Real
          Programmer, "it should be hard to understand."  Real
          Programmers can make machines do things that were never in
          their spec sheets; in fact, they are seldom really happy
          unless doing so.  A Real Programmer's code can awe with its
          fiendish brilliance, even as its crockishness appals.
       
          Real Programmers live on junk food and coffee, hang
          line-printer art on their walls, and terrify the crap out of
          other programmers - because someday, somebody else might have
          to try to understand their code in order to change it.  Their
          successors generally consider it a Good Thing that there
          aren't many Real Programmers around any more.
       
          For a famous (and somewhat more positive) portrait of a Real
          Programmer, see "{The Story of Mel".  The term itself was
          popularised by a 1983 Datamation article "{Real Programmers
          Don't Use Pascal" by Ed Post, still circulating on Usenet
          and Internet in on-line form.
       
          [{Jargon File]
       
          (1997-08-29)
       
       

  Real Programmer n. [indirectly, from the book "Real Men Don't Eat
     Quiche"] A particular sub-variety of hacker: one possessed of a flippant
     attitude toward complexity that is arrogant even when justified by
     experience. The archetypal `Real Programmer' likes to program on the
     bare metal and is very good at same, remembers the binary opcodes for
     every machine he has ever programmed, thinks that HLLs are sissy, and
     uses a debugger to edit his code because full-screen editors are for
     wimps. Real Programmers aren't satisfied with code that hasn't been
     bummed into a state of tenseness just short of rupture. Real
     Programmers never use comments or write documentation: "If it was hard
     to write", says the Real Programmer, "it should be hard to understand."
     Real Programmers can make machines do things that were never in their
     spec sheets; in fact, they are seldom really happy unless doing so. A
     Real Programmer's code can awe with its fiendish brilliance, even as its
     crockishness appalls. Real Programmers live on junk food and coffee,
     hang line-printer art on their walls, and terrify the crap out of other
     programmers -- because someday, somebody else might have to try to
     understand their code in order to change it. Their successors generally
     consider it a Good Thing that there aren't many Real Programmers
     around any more. For a famous (and somewhat more positive) portrait of a
     Real Programmer, see "{The Story of Mel" in Appendix A. The term itself
     was popularized by a letter to the editor in the July 1983 Datamation
     titled "Real Programmers Don't Use Pascal" by Ed Post, still circulating
     on Usenet and Internet in on-line form. Typing "Real Programmers Don't
     Use Pascal" into a web search engine should turn up a copy.
  
  

  Real Programmer
     alt.
     (lb en computing slang) An archetypal highly skilled programmer, who
  eschews abstractions and convenient modern tools and methods of
  programming, instead preferring to use a manually-optimised low-level
  language or program directly in machine code for maximum performance.
     n.
     (lb en computing slang) An archetypal highly skilled programmer, who
  eschews abstractions and convenient modern tools and methods of
  programming, instead preferring to use a manually-optimised low-level
  language or program directly in machine code for maximum performance.

  Real Programmer
     alt.
     (lb en computing slang) An archetypal highly skilled programmer, who
  eschews abstractions and convenient modern tools and methods of
  programming, instead preferring to use a manually-optimised low-level
  language or program directly in machine code for maximum performance.
     n.
     (lb en computing slang) An archetypal highly skilled programmer, who
  eschews abstractions and convenient modern tools and methods of
  programming, instead preferring to use a manually-optimised low-level
  language or program directly in machine code for maximum performance.

  Real Programmer
     alt.
     (lb en computing slang) An archetypal highly skilled programmer, who
  eschews abstractions and convenient modern tools and methods of
  programming, instead preferring to use a manually-optimised low-level
  language or program directly in machine code for maximum performance.
     n.
     (lb en computing slang) An archetypal highly skilled programmer, who
  eschews abstractions and convenient modern tools and methods of
  programming, instead preferring to use a manually-optimised low-level
  language or program directly in machine code for maximum performance.

  Real Programmer
     alt.
     (lb en computing slang) An archetypal highly skilled programmer, who
  eschews abstractions and convenient modern tools and methods of
  programming, instead preferring to use a manually-optimised low-level
  language or program directly in machine code for maximum performance.
     n.
     (lb en computing slang) An archetypal highly skilled programmer, who
  eschews abstractions and convenient modern tools and methods of
  programming, instead preferring to use a manually-optimised low-level
  language or program directly in machine code for maximum performance.