real world

3 definitions found

real world - WordNet (r) 2.1 (2005) :

  real world
      n 1: the practical world as opposed to the academic world; "a
           good consultant must have a lot of experience in the real
           world" [syn: real world, real life]

real world - Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (26 May 2007) :

  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.
  

real world - Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003) :

  Real World
   n.
  
     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.