Source : Free On-Line Dictionary of Computing

Real Programmer
     
         (From the book "Real Men Don't Eat Quiche") A
        variety of hacker possessed of a flippant attitude toward
        complexity that is arrogant even when justified by experience.
        The archetypal "Real Programmer" likes to program on the {bare
        metal} and is very good at it, remembers the binary {op codes}
        for every machine he has ever programmed, thinks that
        {high-level languages} are sissy, and uses a {debugger} to
        edit his code because full-screen editors are for wimps.  Real
        Programmers aren't satisfied with code that hasn't been
        {bum}med into a state of {tense}ness just short of rupture.
     
        Real Programmers never use {comments} or write
        {documentation}: "If it was hard to write", says the Real
        Programmer, "it should be hard to understand."  Real
        Programmers can make machines do things that were never in
        their spec sheets; in fact, they are seldom really happy
        unless doing so.  A Real Programmer's code can awe with its
        fiendish brilliance, even as its crockishness appals.
     
        Real Programmers live on junk food and coffee, hang
        line-printer art on their walls, and terrify the crap out of
        other programmers - because someday, somebody else might have
        to try to understand their code in order to change it.  Their
        successors generally consider it a {Good Thing} that there
        aren't many Real Programmers around any more.
     
        For a famous (and somewhat more positive) portrait of a Real
        Programmer, see "{The Story of Mel}".  The term itself was
        popularised by a 1983 Datamation article "{Real Programmers
        Don't Use Pascal}" by Ed Post, still circulating on {Usenet}
        and Internet in on-line form.
     
        [{Jargon File}]
     
        (1997-08-29)