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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><title>Real World</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="../../jargon.css" type="text/css"/><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.61.0"/><link rel="home" href="../index.html" title="The Jargon File"/><link rel="up" href="../R.html" title="R"/><link rel="previous" href="real-user.html" title="real user"/><link rel="next" href="reality-check.html" title="reality check"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">Real World</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="real-user.html">Prev</a> </td><th width="60%" align="center">R</th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="reality-check.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><dt><a id="Real-World"/><dt xmlns="" id="Real-World"><b>Real World</b>: <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="grammar">n.</span></dt></dt><dd><p> 1. Those institutions at which &#8216;programming&#8217; may be used
in the same sentence as &#8216;FORTRAN&#8217;,
&#8216;<a href="../C/COBOL.html"><i class="glossterm">COBOL</i></a>&#8217;, &#8216;RPG&#8217;,
&#8216;<a href="../I/IBM.html"><i class="glossterm">IBM</i></a>&#8217;, &#8216;DBASE&#8217;, etc. Places
where programs do such commercially necessary but intellectually
uninspiring things as generating payroll checks and invoices.</p></dd><dd><p> 2. The location of non-programmers and activities not related to
programming. </p></dd><dd><p> 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
<a href="../C/code-grinder.html"><i class="glossterm">code grinder</i></a>). </p></dd><dd><p> 4. Anywhere outside a university. &#8220;<span class="quote">Poor fellow, he's left MIT
and gone into the Real World.</span>&#8221; 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 &#8216;REALITY
CHECKPOINT&#8217;. It marks the boundary between university and the Real
World; check your notions of reality before passing. This joke is funnier
because the Cambridge &#8216;campus&#8217; is actually coextensive with the
center of Cambridge town. See also <a href="../F/fear-and-loathing.html"><i class="glossterm">fear and
loathing</i></a>, <a href="../M/mundane.html"><i class="glossterm">mundane</i></a>, and
<a href="../U/uninteresting.html"><i class="glossterm">uninteresting</i></a>.</p><div class="mediaobject"><img src="../graphics/cobol.png"/><div class="caption"><p>()</p></div></div></dd><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="real-user.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="../R.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="reality-check.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">real user </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> reality check</td></tr></table></div></body></html>