Real World
from
Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003)
Real World
n.
1. Those institutions at which `programming' may be used in the same
sentence as `FORTRAN', `{COBOL}', `RPG', `{IBM}', `DBASE', etc. Places
where programs do such commercially necessary but intellectually
uninspiring things as generating payroll checks and invoices.
2. The location of non-programmers and activities not related to
programming.
3. A bizarre dimension in which the standard dress is shirt and tie
and in which a person's working hours are defined as 9 to 5 (see {code
grinder}).
4. Anywhere outside a university. "Poor fellow, he's left MIT and gone
into the Real World." Used pejoratively by those not in residence
there. In conversation, talking of someone who has entered the Real
World is not unlike speaking of a deceased person. It is also
noteworthy that on the campus of Cambridge University in England,
there is a gaily-painted lamp-post which bears the label `REALITY
CHECKPOINT'. It marks the boundary between university and the Real
World; check your notions of reality before passing. This joke is
funnier because the Cambridge `campus' is actually coextensive with
the center of Cambridge town. See also {fear and loathing}, {mundane},
and {uninteresting}.
from
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008)
Real World
1. Those institutions at which "programming" may be used in
the same sentence as "Fortran", "{COBOL}", "RPG", "{IBM}",
"DBASE", etc. Places where programs do such commercially
necessary but intellectually uninspiring things as generating
payroll checks and invoices.
2. The location of non-programmers and activities not related
to programming.
3. A bizarre dimension in which the standard dress is shirt
and tie and in which a person's working hours are defined as 9
to 5 (see {code grinder}).
4. Anywhere outside a university. "Poor fellow, he's left MIT
and gone into the Real World." Used pejoratively by those not
in residence there. In conversation, talking of someone who
has entered the Real World is not unlike speaking of a
deceased person. It is also noteworthy that on the campus of
Cambridge University in England, there is a gaily-painted
lamp-post which bears the label "REALITY CHECKPOINT". It
marks the boundary between university and the Real World;
check your notions of reality before passing. This joke is
funnier because the Cambridge "campus" is actually coextensive
with the centre of Cambridge.
See also {fear and loathing}, {mundane}, {uninteresting}.
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