[OT] Re: DMD 1.005 release

[Andrei Alexandrescu (See Website For Email)]

Walter Bright wrote:
> Sean Kelly wrote:
>> Walter Bright wrote:
>>> Kirk McDonald wrote:
>>>> Ohh, lookit all the huge, pretty red sections.
>>>
>>> My goal is to make the Boost implementation code look as obsolete as 
>>> a muzzle-loading smoothbore.
>>
>> It has nothing to do with the conversation, but your statement 
>> reminded me...  I saw a show not too long ago (may have been 
>> MythBusters) where the penetration depth of various types of 
>> ammunition were tested in water.  Modern bullets had poor penetration 
>> because they tended to tumble upon entering the water, thus creating 
>> drag (max injury depth was less than 5 feet).  And high-velocity 
>> rounds tended to fragment upon entry and had even shallower 
>> penetration (around 3 feet).  Finally, a muzzle-loading smoothbore was 
>> tested and it had by far the deepest penetration of any weapon 
>> tested.  So if you're being shot at in a lake, I suppose you don't 
>> want the shooter using Boost ;-)
> 
> Sounds like that is about the ammunition, not the gun.
> 
> The worst thing about a muzzle-loader in combat was you had to *stand 
> up* to reload it. Can you imagine the guts it takes to do that, when 
> your every nerve screams at you to push your face in the dirt?

Actually the notion of taking cover, now ubiquitously known even by 
civilians (due to cinematography), is (amazingly) a recent development. 
Until the end of WWI, soldiers actually were not jumping to the ground 
under fire. They'd be trained to think that they'd have a better chance 
by moving forward and storming the enemy. It's pretty much how a million 
soldiers just died mowed by machine gun at Somme.

When I was in the military, there was a big detailed poster displaying 
the difference in shooting angle offered by a standing vs. a crouched 
vs. a lying man.


Andrei