Bureau

[Rade-Mathis]

What does that do

Basically implements issue #88:

Adds a new 'advanced option' in the arch-style generator, that permits to add a bureau under the arch.

Regressions

Normally none: This is an optional advanced option, behaviors should be merely the same as before when you don't specify any bureau.

Conflics

None with @slashme's master branch. But I'm pretty sure it will have a lot with @Gouvernathor's pull-request #115. Depending on which pull-request you want to accept first, the other dev will surely have to adapt their branch.

Examples

• Interface
  
  

• Small parliament
  

• France's XVth national assembly
  

• A weird flex, like someone wanting to 'hack' the feature to do something I guess
  

[Gouvernathor]

From a utility/realism point of view, I don't think this display is really relevant, as hemicycle-styled parliaments usually (if not always) keep their bureau members partisan - as opposed to Speakers in the United Kingdom or Canada for example. Especially in france, they all keep their seat in the chamber, in their party's area, so displaying them outside of it and not counting them in the displayed members number doesn't reflect the way this actually works - as opposed, once again, to westminster parliaments. No semi-circular parliament to my knowledge even has more than one bureau member on the rostrum at the same time.
This could arguably make sense in the US Senate, adding the VPOTUS visible but separate from the senators body and count... 🤔 Did you intend it for a specific country/body ?

Since this is an advanced option I'd agree there's no harm in allowing people to create whatever parliaments they like, but I don't see (and I would'nt like to see) this become the norm on wikipedia.

As for the compatibility with my own PR, I'll look a bit deeper into your code. Maybe I'll copy some of your ways to make them more similar. If mine gets merged first, I'll probably help you take it into account.

[Rade-Mathis]

This feature was requested by several users, hence I decided to work on it.

I personally consider it useful, because fancy.

On Wikipedia itself, we can note that people tends to differentiate these seats when hand-making diagrams: Japan's lower, Taiwan's, Spain's upper and lower.

I didn't take the time to dig into your commits. They are mathematical revamping aren't they? They also seem to unify normal and denser-row positioning?

[Gouvernathor]

Exactly, it's a math overhaul. My PR uses a consistent formula for the number of seats per row, instead of having one suitable for small diagrams and one for larger ones - if I understand correctly what denser rows provides.

[slashme]

OK, I've just read this. The "denser rows" option is very useful for making smaller parliaments render acceptably. For example, if you have a parliament with 5 delegates, it looks horrible with the standard code, but the denser rows option puts them all in the same arch, which is perfect. This is not a weird edge case: there are diagrams on Wikipedia right now with such small legislatures, so I really want a solution that implements this. I even replaced the code with this option, but some users didn't like it, so I rolled it back and now it's an option.

[slashme]

I'm on a train right now with horrible wifi, so I'm having trouble testing this. I tried the code on the toolserver, and although the bureau option appeared under "advanced options", clicking the button did nothing. I'll investigate more deeply in the coming weeks: This week I'll be away from home, so I might not have time, but definitely during the week of 6 March!

It's definitely a worthwhile feature, if only because users have been requesting it.