Re: The selective fire-at command

[Eric McDonald <mcdonald at phy dot cmich dot edu>]

On Wed, 18 Aug 2004, Hans Ronne wrote:

> problems. The fact that nobody discovered that the command doesn't work for
> many years shows that it's a very subtle bug (or a seldomly used command).

I would say the former and not the latter. I have, in fact, used 
this command to fire at a single unit so that a mouse click does 
not accidentally advance into a cell (when the opponent exerts a 
ZOC range of -1, for example).

I have also thought that I was firing at a select unit when more 
than one unit was present in a cell before. Of course, I was 
obviously under the delusion that my choice of target was being 
hit, and did not pay close attention to where the firing lines 
where being drawn. Mea culpa, I guess. But, the fact that I 
thought I was using something, but was not, does not mean that it 
is not useful.

Of course, when an unit with a large image is occupied, then it 
obscures the entire cell, and so it is not possible to even click 
on the edge of the cell to enter it. (Or this is my recollection 
anyway.)

> I found it paradoxical, though, that those who argued that this is a very
> useful command which should be kept at all costs have never been able to
> use it, while I, who do have a selective fire-at command on my Mac don't
> find it particularly useful :-).

The sarcasm was not lost on me. However, I do not think we should 
let it detract from the good arguments about the usefulness of the 
command and its corresponding action. Nor should we let it derail 
the 'fire-into' semantics debate, until that is all straightened 
out. Also, as you pointed out, the attack command and 
corresponding action did work as advertized, and so it cannot be 
claimed that those who advocated it were using it under a 
delusion in the way that I was using fire under a delusion.

These are important changes that are being discussed, and it 
would be a pity if the arguments were swept under the rug because 
someone was cast as a hypocrite of sorts.

Eric