Source : WordNet®

real world
     n : the practical world as opposed to the academic world; "a
         good consultant must have a lot of experience in the real
         world" [syn: {real life}]

Source : Free On-Line Dictionary of Computing

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}.