Software Development Fiction

(Corporate) software development provides more input for Dilbert cartoons than it does for literary fiction, but there are a few books in which programmers and programming are the main characters.

Coding Slave (2004)

Coding Slave by Bob Reselman is a fictional book about the state of current software development and a utopian vision of how to improve the situation.

• Interview with Bob Reselman

MicroSerfs (1994)

MicroSerfs by Douglas Coupland is a novel about coders at MicroSoft? in the 1990's. `Known as "microserfs," they spend upward of 16 hours a day "coding" (writing software) as they eat "flat" foods (such as Kraft singles, which can be passed underneath closed doors) and fearfully scan the company email to see what the great Bill might be thinking and whether he is going to "flame" one of them.'

• http://www.thinkgeek.com/books/scifi/5b32/
• http://membres.lycos.fr/coupland/coupmicr.html
• http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/2.01/microserfs.html

A Scandal in Software

A novel-in-progress about software development

• http://www.developerdotstar.com/community/scandal_in_software

• Fiction: The Agile Truth?

Other Literature?

Let me know if you know of other novels with programmers.

An essay about the hacker culture and literature:

• Magic Mirror: The Novel as a Software Development Platform by Mark Pesce