Real Programmers Don't Use Pascal: Difference between revisions

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{{short description|1983 essay about programming}}

{{redirect|Real Programmer|general meaning or the term originated from this essay|Real Programmer syndrome}}

"'''Real Programmers Don't Use Pascal'''" (a parody of the bestselling 1982 tongue-in-cheek book on stereotypes about masculinity ''[[Real Men Don't Eat Quiche]]'') is an essay about [[computer programming]] written by Ed Post<ref name=ryerson>{{cite web

|url = http://www.ee.ryerson.ca/~elf/hack/realmen.html

|title = Real Programmers Don't Use Pascal

|author = Post, Ed

|date = July 1983

|archiveurl = https://wwwweb.webcitationarchive.org/659yh1oSh?url=web/20120206010243/http://www.ee.ryerson.ca/~elf/hack/realmen.html

|publisher = [[Datamation]]

|archivedate = 2012-02-0206

|archiveurl = https://www.webcitation.org/659yh1oSh?url=http://www.ee.ryerson.ca/~elf/hack/realmen.html

|url-status = live

|archivedate = 2012-02-02

}}</ref> (a parody of the bestselling 1982 tongue-in-cheek book on stereotypes about masculinity ''[[Real Men Don't Eat Quiche]]'') is an essay about [[computer programming]] written by Ed Post of [[Tektronix, Inc.]],<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=_S4EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA34 ''Note:'' Graphic Software Systems was a 1981 spin-off of Tektronix]</ref> and published in July 1983 as a reader's contribution in ''[[Datamation]]''.<ref group="lower-alpha">Volume 29 number 7</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/bitsavers_datamation_52582203/page/n245/mode/2up |title=Datamation |date=July 1983 |publisher=Technical Publishing |volume=29 |___location=United States |pages=263-265 |language=en}}</ref>

|deadurl = no

|df =

}} ''"...&nbsp;Real Programmers use FORTRAN. Quiche Eaters use PASCAL&nbsp;..."''</ref> of [[Tektronix, Inc.]],<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=_S4EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA34 ''Note:'' Graphic Software Systems was a 1981 spin-off of Tektronix]</ref> and published in July 1983 as a [[letter to the editor]] in ''[[Datamation]]''.<ref group="lower-alpha">Volume 29 number 7</ref>

==History==

Widely circulated on [[Usenet]] in its day, and well- known in the computer software industry,<ref name=Raymond>{{cite web

| url = http://www.th-soft.com/zzJargon/R.htm#Real_Programmer

| title = Real Programmer

| work = The New Hacker's Dictionary

| date = July 27, 1993

| authoreditor = Eric S. Raymond,| editoraccessdate = 2008-03-28

}}</ref> the article compares and contrasts ''real programmers'', who use punch cards and write programs in [[FORTRAN]] or [[assembly language]], with modern-day "quiche eaters" who use programming languages such as [[Pascal (programming language)|Pascal]] which support [[structured programming]] and impose restrictions meant to prevent or minimize common [[software bug|bug]]s due to inadvertent programming logic errors. Also mentioned are feats such as [[Seymour Cray|]], the inventor]] of the [[Cray-1]] supercomputer, togglingusing in<refmanual group="lower-alpha">''Togglingcontrol in'' refersswitches to setting an array of [[toggle switch]]es or rocker switches which supplement program memory</ref>load the first operating system for the [[CDC 7600]] through the front panel without notes when it was first powered on.

| accessdate = 2008-03-28

}}</ref> the article compares and contrasts ''real programmers'', who use punch cards and write programs in [[FORTRAN]] or [[assembly language]], with modern-day "quiche eaters" who use programming languages such as [[Pascal (programming language)|Pascal]] which support [[structured programming]] and impose restrictions meant to prevent or minimize common [[software bug|bug]]s due to inadvertent programming logic errors. Also mentioned are feats such as [[Seymour Cray|the inventor]] of the [[Cray-1]] supercomputer toggling in<ref group="lower-alpha">''Toggling in'' refers to setting an array of [[toggle switch]]es or rocker switches which supplement program memory</ref> the first operating system for the [[CDC 7600]] through the front panel without notes when it was first powered on.

The archetypalnext Realyear Programmer[[Ed immortalized inNather]]’s ''[[The Story of Mel]]'', also known as ''The realest programmer of all'', extended the theme. Immortalized in the piece is [[Mel Kaye]] of the [[Royal McBee]] Computer Corporation. As the story famously puts it, "He wrote in machine code—in 'raw, unadorned, inscrutable [[hexadecimal]] numbers. Directly.'"

Since then, the [[computer jargon|computer folklore]] term ''Real Programmer'' has come to describe the archetypical "hardcore" programmer who eschews the modern languages and tools of the day in favour of more direct and efficient (for the machine, decidedly not for the programmer) solutions—[[low-level programming language|closer to the hardware]].<ref name=Raymond/> The term is used in many subsequent articles,<ref>{{cite journal

The next year [[Ed Nather]]’s ''[[The Story of Mel]]'', also known as ''The realest programmer of all'', extended the theme, as have many subsequent articles,<ref>{{cite journal

| url = http://csdl2.computer.org/persagen/DLAbsToc.jsp?resourcePath=/dl/mags/so/&toc=comp/mags/so/1995/06/s6toc.xml&DOI=10.1109/52.469755

| author = Ian Gorton

Line 33:

| accessdate = 2008-03-28

| doi = 10.1109/52.469755

| url-access = subscription

}}</ref><ref>{{cite web

| url = http://www.cs.utah.edu/~elb/folklore/afs-paper.ps

| title = The Heroic Hacker: Legends of the Computer Age

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| archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20080419225755/http://www.suslik.org/Humour/Computer/Langs/real_prog2.html

| archivedate = 2008-04-19

}}</ref> [[webcomic]]s<ref>[http://xkcd.com/378/ REAL programmers] xkcd.com</ref> and in-jokes&mdash;withalthough the alleged defining features of a "Real Programmer" differingdiffer with time and place.

The archetypal Real Programmer immortalized in ''The Story of Mel'' is [[Mel Kaye]] of the [[Royal McBee]] Computer Corporation. As the story famously puts it, "He wrote in machine code—in 'raw, unadorned, inscrutable [[hexadecimal]] numbers. Directly.'"

Since then, the [[computer jargon|computer folklore]] term ''Real Programmer'' has come to describe the archetypical "hardcore" programmer who eschews the modern languages and tools of the day in favour of more direct and efficient solutions—[[low-level programming language|closer to the hardware]].<ref name=Raymond/>

==See also==

*[[{{§l|Pascal (programming language)#Early_criticism|PascalEarly criticism]]}}

{{Wikipedia books|Real Programmers Don't Use Pascal}}

*[[No true Scotsman]]

*[[Pascal (programming language)#Early_criticism|Pascal criticism]]

*[[Real Programmer syndrome]]

==References==

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[[Category:Pascal (programming language)]]

[[Category:1983 essays]]

[[Category:1983 in computer sciencecomputing]]

[[Category:Parodies of literature]]

[[Category:Computer humour]]