Real Programmers Don't Use Pascal: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 18:46, 6 January 2024

Revision as of 19:26, 6 January 2024

Line 18:

| date = July 27, 1993

| editor = Eric S. Raymond| 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, 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.

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, "He wrote in machine code—in 'raw, unadorned, inscrutable [[hexadecimal]] numbers. Directly.'"