Realistic Portrayals of Software Programmers?

lwbecker2 asks: "Warren Harrison has written a thought-provoking editorial piece on The Software Developer as Movie Icon. He explores the fact that new entrants to Computer Science curriculum are typically clueless about what 'real' developers actually do. While researching the issue of why this is the case, he determined that some potential CS degree seekers are forming opinions from portrayals in movies and cinema. He describes what he asserts to be inaccurate portrayals of developers in War Games, TRON, and The Net, and asks for input and opinions on 'the impact of the cinema and television on new software developers' expectations, as well as learn of any films that do a better job of portraying our profession...' I am sure Slashdot readers have some input on this, and I am curious if people believe _any_ movie has acurately portrayed software developers?"

Comments

Re:Most Accurate Portrayal of a Computer Award...

[tmhsiao]

Of course you're being sarcastic, but that silly looking 3D system was actually an SGI product called fsn, pronounced "fusion," and it ran on IRIX 4.0.1+ machines...

Re:Yes there is one...

[Teach]

This pretty much nails it, here. Signal 11 said something on Slashdot a couple of years ago regarding this that I saved:

"Let's face it: the life of a geek is boring. We spend all day in front of our computers checking our e-mail, coding, and sitting on our duff doing 'nothing'. At least to the untrained eye. On the molecular level, however, we are quite busy."

Couldn't have said it better myself. It's just hard to make this profession look interesting on the big screen.