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.