Real Programmers Don't Use Pascal: Difference between revisions

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"'''Real Programmer'''" syndrome is the opposite extreme to the [[impostor syndrome]].<ref name="Business_insider">{{cite web |url=http://www.businessinsider.com/syndromes-drive-coders-crazy-2014-3 |title= The Stress Of Being A Computer Programmer Is Literally Driving Many Of Them Crazy| author = Julie Bort |date= March 2014 |publisher= [[Business Insider]] |accessdate=2016-12-30 |deadurl= no}}</ref> The syndrome is characterised by set of specific beliefs and behaviours.

"'''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

| publisher = [[Datamation]]

| archiveurl = http://www.webcitation.org/659yh1oSh

| archivedate= 2012-02-02

| deadurl = no

}} ''"...&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>Volume 29 number 7</ref>

==Behaviors==

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

Behaviors that are part of the syndrome include working for no extra monetary compensation up to 12-hour days/six days a week for months or years on end, damaging some programmers' health as a result of the strain.<ref name="Business_insider"/>

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

| title = Real Programmer

==Beliefs==

| work = The New Hacker's Dictionary

The beliefs that are part of the syndrome include the belief in fetishized social status of being "real programmer" that was the theme of ''The Story of Mel'' about [[Mel Kaye]] of the [[Royal McBee]] Computer Corporation, who, as the story puts it, "wrote in machine code—in 'raw, unadorned, inscrutable [[hexadecimal]] numbers. Directly.'". Historically they were described by a 1983 essay "'''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]]'') 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 |publisher= [[Datamation]] |archiveurl= http://www.webcitation.org/659yh1oSh |archivedate=2012-02-02 |deadurl= no}} ''"...&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> published as a [[letter to the editor]] in ''[[Datamation]]''<ref>Volume 29 number 7</ref>, and later widely circulated on [[Usenet]]<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 |author=Eric S. Raymond, editor |accessdate= 2008-03-28}}</ref>, defining ''real programmer'' as someone who refuses [[structured programming]] and tools of the day in favour of harder, but more direct solutions—[[low-level programming language|closer to the hardware]].<ref name=Raymond/>

| date = July 27, 1993

| author = Eric S. Raymond, editor

| 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>''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, as have many subsequent articles,<ref>{{cite journal

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| archivedate = 2008-04-19

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

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

*[[Commodity fetishism#Social prestige|Social prestige as cultural fetishism]]

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

==References==