The relevant meta-meme is the "programming sock". A humorous screenshot of an Amazon recommendation that said one of those knee-high socks with pink stripes was often bought together with a nerdy book like "The C Programming Language". People started referring to those kinds of socks ironically as "programming socks".

I don't know if the screenshot was doctored, or if the Amazon recommendation engine found a real cluster of customers who are interested in both programming books and programming socks. In any case, I suppose it doesn't really matter because when people spread funny memes ironically it's only a matter of time before people join in sincerely without the irony.

In short the answer to your question is "both".