RE: Fun With OOP

["Idahosa I. Edokpayi" <stealth_ninja@geocities.com>]

Well it worked :) 

Idahosa Edokpayi

-----Original Message-----
From: gameprogrammer-owner@gameprogrammer.com
[mailto:gameprogrammer-owner@gameprogrammer.com]On Behalf Of Trevor
Lindsay
Sent: Monday, April 03, 2000 5:04 PM
To: Game Programmer List
Subject: Fun With OOP


The reuse of some object-oriented code had caused tactical
headaches for Australia's armed forces. As virtual reality
simulators assume larger roles in helicopter combat training,
programmers have gone to great lengths to increase the realism of
their scenarios, including detailed landscapes and-in the case of
the Northern Territory's Operation Phoenix-herds of kangaroos
(since disturbed animals might well give away a helicopter's
position).

The head of the Defence Science & Technology Organization's Land
Operations/Simulation division reportedly instructed developers to
model the local marsupials' movements and reactions to
helicopters. Being efficient programmers, they just
re-appropriated some code originally used to model infantry
detachment reactions under the same stimuli, changed the mapped
icon from a soldier to a kangaroo, and increased the figures'
speed of movement.

Eager to demonstrate their flying skills for some visiting
American pilots, the hotshot Aussies "buzzed" the virtual
kangaroos in low flight during a simulation.  The kangaroos
scattered, as predicted, and the visiting Americans nodded
appreciatively....then did a double-take as the kangaroos
reappeared from behind a hill and launched a barrage of Stinger
missiles at the helpless helicopter.  (Apparently the programmers
had forgotten to remove THAT part of the infantry coding.)  The
lesson? Objects are defined with certain attributes, and any new
object defined in terms of an old one inherits all the
attributes. The embarrassed programmers had learned to be careful
when reusing object-oriented code, and the Yanks left with a
newfound respect for Australian wildlife.

Simulator supervisors report that pilots from that point onward have
strictly avoided kangaroos, just as they were meant to.

(From June 15, 1999 Defence Science and Technology Organization
Lecture series, Melbourne, Australia, and staff reports. Item
taken from Software Testing and Quality Engineering magazine,
Volume 1, Issue 6 (November/December 1999)

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