Real Programmer: Difference between revisions

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Revision as of 04:42, 1 September 2009

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The term '''Real Programmer''' is a term used byin [[computer programming|computer programmer]]s' [[folklore]] to describe the archetypical "hardcore" programmer. A ''real programmer'' eschews modern or graphical tools such as [[integrated development environment]]s or languages other than [[assembly language]] or [[machine code]] in favour of more direct and efficient solutions - [[low-level programming language|closer to the hardware]].

The term is often used to describe a more bare metal way of doing something - for example: "Real Programmers don't use IDEs, they write programs using <code>cat > [[a.out]]</code>" (that is, they write machine-readable binary files from beginning to end without making any mistakes). Each generation tends to slightly redefine a Real Programmer, as coding techniques change. For instance, a young [[Java (programming language)|Java]] programmer might refer to an older [[C (programming language)|C]] programmer as being a Real Programmer. In turn, these C programmers refer to older [[ASSEMBLERAssembly_language#Assembler|Assembler]] programmers in the same way.

The archetypal Real Programmer is [[Mel Kaye]] of the [[Royal McBee]] Computer Corporation who is immortalised in "The Story of Mel", one of the most famous pieces of hacker folklore. As the story infamously puts it, "He wrote in machine code - in 'raw, unadorned, inscrutable [[hexadecimal]] numbers. Directly."'<ref>[http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/mel.html The story of Mel]</ref>

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==See also==

* ''[[Real Programmers Don't Use Pascal]]'', a 1983 parody of ''[[Real Men Don't Eat Quiche]]'' exploring the psychology of, and prospects for, the Real Programmer.

* An example of Real Programmer, http://xkcd.com/378/

==References==

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==External links==

*[http://www.multicians.org/thvv/realprogs.html "Real Programmers Don't Write Specs]": A list of 'Real programmers...' assertions]

*[http://xkcd.com/378/ "Real Programmers": A comical example of Real Programmer]

[[Category:Computer jargon]]