Vote cycles, difference shadows and stage lighting

[Michael Allan]

This is being delivered quite late.  It includes some extra facilities
(vote cycles and stage lighting) that I didn't anticipate developing.
I'll describe all three facilities very briefly:

Vote cycles
-----------
I added cyclic breadcrumbs to the vote track.  To demonstrate, here is
a sandbox poll: http://zelea.com/w/G/p/sandbox
If you don't see the base candidates, then navigate rightward down the
tree till you arrive at the forest floor.

   (hit refresh if the styling looks funny)

   (only Firefox and Chrome supported at present)

I put four of the base candidates into a cycle.  Each is decorated
with a dot (the breadcrumb).  Click on one.  You are now in a cycle at
the base of the tree, similar to the one depicted here:
http://zelea.com/project/votorola/_/javadoc/votorola/a/count/XCastRelation.html

Click on the candidate (right) to navigating around the cycle in
endless circles.  To escape back to the forest floor, click on the
anchor node (center) in order to de-select it.

In the smaller sandbox poll, I created the tightest possible cycle,
which is just two people: http://zelea.com/w/Sys/p/sandbox

This one has an interesting property.  It's so small that the vote
track wraps completely around it, so the voter (left) and the
candidate (right) are shown as the same person.


Difference shadows
------------------
The "bridge footings" are now called "difference shadows".  The design
is similar and Ed Pastore is acknowleged in the code for inspiring it:
http://zelea.com/project/votorola/_/javadoc/votorola/s/gwt/mediawiki/DifferenceShadows.html

Here is a draft: http://zelea.com/w/User:Test-bg-ZeleaCom/G/p/sandbox
Pan the mouse over the vote track and the differences will light up.
The track has the same function as the old "footing" controls that
used to float to the left of the draft.

In addition to voters (left) and candidate (right), there are now peer
differences (center).  Peer differences have a colour scheme of
yellow/blue rather than green/magenta.  (The bridge is unaware of this
and other changes, and that's probably the next thing to code.  I'll
post a revised plan and estimate in a couple days.)

Difference shadows also function in remote wikis, of course:
http://metagovernment.org/wiki/User:Michael_Allan/draft/m00


Stage lighting
--------------
Although the shadows and vote track are tightly integrated in
function, neither is directly connected to the other.  Instead they
intermediate through a new "lighting" facility:
http://zelea.com/project/votorola/_/javadoc/votorola/s/gwt/stage/light/package-summary.html

Infrastructure like this is expensive to code, but we need it in order
to support and unlimited number of combinations of stage components
(tracks and such) and scenes (web pages).  We'll also need it
eventually to support free choice in user tools and other components.
So instead of being stuck with a single design of vote track (or
difference shadows) the user will be able to mix and match from a
wide catalogue.

Please report any bugs or other problems you see.

-- 
Michael Allan

Toronto, +1 416-699-9528
http://zelea.com/