Real Programmer

The term "Real Programmer" is a term used by computer programmers to describe the archetypical 'hardcore' programmer. A "real programmer" eschews modern or graphical tools such as integrated development environments or languages other than assembly language or machine code in favour of more direct and efficient solutions - '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 cat > a.out". Each generation tends to slightly redefine a Real Programmer, as coding techniques change. For instance, a young Java programmer might refer to an older C programmer as being a Real Programmer. In turn, these C programmers refer to older FORTRAN programmers in the same way.

The archetypal Real Programmer is Mel Kaye of the Royal McBee Computer Corporation who is immortalised in the '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.' [ [http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/mel.html The story of Mel] ]

ee 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.
* No true Scotsman

References

External links

* [http://www.cs.utah.edu/~elb/folklore/mel.html The Story of Mel] , one of the most famous "real programmers"
* [http://www.multicians.org/thvv/realprogs.html Real Programmers Don't Write Specs] A list of 'Real programmers...' assertions