[OT] Re: Redesign of dlang.org

[Chris via Digitalmars-d]

On Wednesday, 9 July 2014 at 15:34:03 UTC, Alix Pexton wrote:
> On 09/07/2014 12:36 PM, Chris wrote:
>> On Tuesday, 8 July 2014 at 21:01:46 UTC, Iain Buclaw via 
>> Digitalmars-d
>
>>> And everyone should drive on the left.
>>
>> Driving on the left goes back to the times when coaches 
>> (carriages) were
>> still in use. This was to avoid that drivers would 
>> accidentally hit each
>> other with their whips when a coach would come from the 
>> opposite
>> direction. No joke. As regards cars, driving on the left is 
>> highly
>> unintuitive for most people as the majority of drivers are 
>> right-handed.
>> There is no ergonomic or technical reason why cars should 
>> drive on the
>> left. In most parts of the world driving on the right was 
>> adopted from
>> early on as it is more intuitive (for most people).
>>
>
> Driving on the left actually originates from jousting. On a 
> tilting yard each combatant rides on the right side and aims 
> their lance across their body at the opponent in the lane on 
> the left. When knights passed each other out on the roads, the 
> would do so on the left side so show that they were not 
> hostile. The whole of Europe took up this practice, and used to 
> always ride, drive carts and march as a body of men on the left.
>
> Then a chap called Napoleon came along and used a guerilla 
> tactic to trick his enemy by marching on the right so that his 
> troops looked like they were travelling in the opposite 
> direction. Eventually driving on the wrong side became the norm 
> for all the regions of Europe that Napoleon conquered, and it 
> spread as a matter of practicality to adjacent regions over 
> time. Napoleon was defeated by the English because this trick 
> does not work at sea. The UK still drives on the correct side 
> because there is no problem with having to swap sides when 
> crossing land borders. It is also an act that commemorates that 
> historic victory.
>
> Or at least that is what I learned in school ^^
>
> A...

This sounds just like Imperial education. Very interesting how it 
equates Imperial practices with the "right" thing and the 
(continental) arch enemy with the "wrong" thing. By the way, 
there was a reason why combatant riders would ride on the right 
side on a tilting yard: they were right-handed. Just as it makes 
more sense to switch gears with the right hand and not with the 
(in most cases) weaker left hand.