Source was quoted at the bottom, so it can be verified.

-----Original Message-----
From: Timothy Tow [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Tuesday, November 23, 1999 10:01 AM

Careless code recycling causes killer kangas --
Mutant Marsupials Take Up Arms Against Australian Air
Force

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 Defense Science & Technology
Organization's LandOperations/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 _Defense 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)

ObConSim Content - How often do we combine games with
compatible rules and components together (sort of like
object-oriented programming). Avalon Hill's combined
War at Sea and Victory the Pacific was always fun (No
USS Nimitz though!)

Tim