Is that forwards first or backwards first? (Re: unintuitive for-loop behavior)

[Michael Torrie]

On 10/03/2016 03:10 AM, Gregory Ewing wrote:
> Rustom Mody wrote:
>> My new car goes in reverse when I put it in first gear but only on full-moon 
>> nights with the tank on reserve when the left light is blinking
> 
> OT aside: When I went to take my current car (a manual)
> for a test drive, I had to stop and ask the dealer how
> to put it into reverse.
> 
> Turns out the only difference between first and reverse
> on that model is whether you lift up a little ring on the
> shaft of the gear lever prior to engagement.
> 
> Who came up with *that* brilliant piece of user interface
> design I don't know. It seems specifically designed to
> encourage velocity sign errors when starting off...

Yeah I'm not sure what's up with car engineers these days. The Chrysler
transmission shifter that springs back to the center position is another
one of those brain-dead things.  There's no way to know if you've made
it all the way into park without looking at the dash.  Click it up and
hold it to hit neutral, then reverse, then park.  Then it springs back
to center position.  This contributed to the death of that Star Trek
movie actor.  He thought it was in park but it wasn't, and it rolled
over him.