Real Programmers Don't Use Pascal
"Real Programmer" syndrome is the opposite extreme to the impostor syndrome.[1] 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.[1]
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[2] of Tektronix, Inc.,[3] published as a letter to the editor in Datamation[4], and later widely circulated on Usenet[5], defining real programmer as someone who refuses structured programming and tools of the day in favour of harder, but more direct solutions—closer to the hardware.[5]
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,[6][7][8] webcomics[9] and in-jokes—with the alleged defining features of a "Real Programmer" differing with time and place.
See also
References
- ^ a b Julie Bort (March 2014). "The Stress Of Being A Computer Programmer Is Literally Driving Many Of Them Crazy". Business Insider. Retrieved 2016-12-30.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - ^ Post, Ed (July 1983). "Real Programmers Don't Use Pascal". Datamation. Archived from the original on 2012-02-02.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) "... Real Programmers use FORTRAN. Quiche Eaters use PASCAL ..." - ^ Note: Graphic Software Systems was a 1981 spin-off of Tektronix
- ^ Volume 29 number 7
- ^ a b Eric S. Raymond, editor (July 27, 1993). "Real Programmer". The New Hacker's Dictionary. Retrieved 2008-03-28.
{{cite web}}:|author=has generic name (help) - ^ Ian Gorton (November 1995). "Real Programmers Do Use Delphi". IEEE Software. 12 (6). IEEE Computer Society: 8–12. doi:10.1109/52.469755. Retrieved 2008-03-28.
- ^ Erik Brunvand (October 15, 1996). "The Heroic Hacker: Legends of the Computer Age" (PostScript). p. 4. Retrieved 2008-03-28.
- ^ "More About Real Programmers". Archived from the original on 2008-04-19. Retrieved 2008-03-28.
- ^ REAL programmers xkcd.com