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#REDIRECT [[Real programmer]]
"'''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.
==Behaviors==
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"/>
==Beliefs==
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}} ''"... Real Programmers use FORTRAN. Quiche Eaters use PASCAL ..."''</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/>
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
| title = Real Programmers Do Use Delphi
| journal = IEEE Software
| volume = 12
| issue = 6
| pages = 8–12
| publisher = [[IEEE Computer Society]]
| date = November 1995
| accessdate = 2008-03-28
| doi = 10.1109/52.469755
}}</ref><ref>{{cite web
| url = http://www.cs.utah.edu/~elb/folklore/afs-paper.ps
| title = The Heroic Hacker: Legends of the Computer Age
| author = Erik Brunvand
| date = October 15, 1996
| format = [[PostScript]]
| page = 4
| accessdate = 2008-03-28
}}</ref><ref>{{cite web
| url = http://www.suslik.org/Humour/Computer/Langs/real_prog2.html
| title = More About Real Programmers
| accessdate = 2008-03-28
| 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—with the alleged defining features of a "Real Programmer" differing with time and place.
==See also==
{{Wikipedia books|Real Programmers Don't Use Pascal}}
*[[Commodity fetishism#Social prestige|Social prestige as cultural fetishism]]
==References==
{{reflist}}
==External links==
*[http://www.ee.ryerson.ca/~elf/hack/realmen.html Real Programmers Don't Use Pascal (full original)]
[[Category:Computer folklore]]
[[Category:Pascal (programming language)]]
[[Category:1983 essays]]
[[Category:Parodies]]
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