Real Programmers Don't Use Pascal: Difference between revisions

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}} ''"...&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

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}}</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 next year [[Ed Nather]]’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, as"He havewrote manyin subsequentmachine articlescode—in 'raw,<ref>{{cite journalunadorned, 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/> The term is used in 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

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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==