  The European AI Act is a new, legally binding instrument that will enforce
certain requirements on the development and use of AI technology potentially
affecting people in Europe. It can be expected that the stipulations of the
Act, in turn, are going to affect the work of many software engineers, software
testers, data engineers, and other professionals across the IT sector in Europe
and beyond. The 113 articles, 180 recitals, and 13 annexes that make up the Act
cover 144 pages. This paper aims at providing an aid for navigating the Act
from the perspective of some professional in the software domain, termed "the
working programmer", who feels the need to know about the stipulations of the
Act.
