[wplug] Research Q's for movie script

Elwin Green bekitemba2002 at yahoo.com
Sun Dec 7 14:32:00 EST 2003


This is OT, but WPLUG'ers are the only people I know
to turn to for this.

I'm writing a screenplay in which the two male leads,
Jeremy and Leonard, are co-workers in a Pittsburgh
software development firm. The company lands a
Department of Defense contract for a job which will
require a project manager to relocate to Denver for 6
months. Jeremy and Leonard both apply for the
position. Jeremy gets it, but screws up so badly that
the company sends Leonard out to rescue the project.

When Leonard arrives, he imposes the rule that at the
end of each workday, each person on the development
team will give Jeremy a hard copy of the code they've
written that day, however much or little. Each
evening, he and Jeremy review everyone's work. With
lots of long hours, they save the project.

The movie is a suspense drama, and for 90% or more of
the audience, the type of work Jeremy and Leonard do
will not matter. However, I want the movie to be
credible for any IT pros or other geeks who happen to
watch it. So I have some questions for the hardcore
among us:

Is the overall scenario above credible? If not, what
change(s) would make it credible for you? Or is it so
far off base that I may as well make Jeremy and
Leonard auto mechanics?

What types of software projects might actually be done
in 6 months?

Could the above scenario illustrate the superior
effectiveness of the UNIX philosophy in software
development? I think it would be cool if Leonard said
something like, "This program's too big because it's
doing five things. We need five programs that do one
thing each. Think small, people." Or, "A pretty
interface can't save an ugly program." But it would be
truly cool only if it were credible to geeks.

It's okay to respond offlist. Thanks!

Elwin G.


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