"Real Programmers Don't Use Pascal"[1] is an essay[2] about computer programming written by Ed Post of Tektronix, Inc., and published in July 1983 as a letter to the editor in Datamation.[3]
Widely circulated on Usenet in its day, and well-known in the computer software industry[4] the article compares and contrasts real programmers, who use punch cards and write programs in FORTRAN or assembly language, with modern-day "quiche eaters" who use programming languages such as Pascal which support structured programming and impose restrictions meant to prevent or minimize common bugs due to inadvertent programming logic errors. Also mentioned are feats such as the inventor of the Cray-1 supercomputer toggling in[5] the first operating system for the CDC 7600 through the front panel without notes when it was first powered on.
The next year Ed Nather’s "The realest programmer of all"[6] USENET posting extended the theme, as have many subsequent articles,[7][8][9] cartoons[10] and in-jokes—with the alleged defining features of a "Real Programmer" differing with time and place, in the fashion of the "no true Scotsman" fallacy.
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