Real soon now

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The phrase "real soon now" (RSN, often capitalized as "Real Soon Now"), originally used in the science fiction fanzine community, was popularised by Jerry Pournelle's "Chaos Manor" column in BYTE magazine. RSN is described as:

  • supposed to be accomplished real soon now according to somebody, but the speaker is quite skeptical. In this sense, when spoken, the vowel in real is drawn out: "reeeeal soon now".
  • when one's gods, fates, or other time commitments permit one to get to it (in other words, don't hold your breath).
  • frequently used to mean "soon, possibly never."

Besides occurring in many clearly humorous ironic/sarcastic writings, RSN is also sometimes informally used in preliminary software engineering project documentation, along with the more colloquial term ASAP and more formal or serious terms like TBA/TBC/TBD/TBR.

This term is similar in meaning and attitude to the phrase "copious free time", apparently coined by Tom Lehrer in the intro to his song It Makes A Fellow Proud To Be A Soldier.

The term "Real Soon Now (tm)," noting the trademark symbol, has become a fad on the Internet for programmers to express at once that a product is actually coming soon and to make fun of the frequent use of the term Real Soon Now in association with late software releases by falsely claiming a trademark on it.

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This article has been tagged since October 2006.

This article was originally based on material from the Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, which is licensed under the GFDL.

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