Telling the difference between a machine pistol and a compact SMG

[Mazryonh]

I wrote this guide originally as a response to users like the one who incorrectly moved the Cobray M11/9 to the submachine gun section of the Max Payne (video game) page, which I provided the vast majority of screenshots for.

Originally Posted by AdAstra2009

Really I don't think That you can really distinguish between Machine Pistols and Submachine guns.
The way I see it is that a Machine Pistol is a subcategory of submachineguns.
To put it bluntly:

All Machine Pistols are submachine guns...But not all submachineguns are Machine Pistols

As I outlined above, the crux of difference between a machine pistol and an SMG is their ergonomics, though their select-fire/fully-automatic fire capabilities and caliber types are the same. A Machine Pistol has the ergonomics of a handgun or not all the ergonomics of a rifle, an SMG has (or should have) all the ergonomics of a rifle. And weren't SMGs invented and used before Machine Pistols were?

Currently, the wiki doesn't lump the Machine Pistol and Submachine Gun categories together, so I wrote this guide to be posted on the SMG and Machine Pistol category talk pages to let users immediately tell the difference and categorize the firearms within correctly.

Originally Posted by S&Wshooter

Pistol caliber carbines are usually somewhere around rifle-sized. Most (but not all) that I can think of are semi-automatic as well.

That's the funny thing. Pistol-caliber carbines have the carbine designation because their barrels are longer than standard full-sized pistols (normally above six inches, since six inches is the maximum "practical" pistol barrel length). In all but this case the term "carbine" refers to a firearm with a shorter barrel than a standard full-sized firearm of that caliber (battle rifle, assault rifle, etc.). This exception should be more widely known amongst the wiki's users.