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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 center of Cambridge town. See also {fear and
loathing}, {mundane}, and {uninteresting}.
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[glossary]
[Reference(s) to this entry by made by: {angle brackets}{beta}{broket}{code grinder}{creeping elegance}{ding}{Mars}{mundane}{RTFS}]