MetaPost/background/gradient shading (ps/pdf shade)

[Tobias Burnus <burnus@gmx.de>]

Hi,

this is still / again concerning the evaluation `project'.

The result of this ranking had been previously  created with Corel Draw (?)
and look like this

--------------------------
  Title
 +------------------+ 100% 
 | Name_1           |
 | Name_2           |
 ~                  ~
 | Name_n-1         |
 | Name_n           |
 +------------------+ 25%
  Footnotes/remarks
-------------------------

The name-pane is coloured green(100%) to red (25%) via yellow using a gradient
shading. Is it possible to access with MP and/or direct writting the PS-3 /
PDF-1.3 shading operator? (I think I once saw an exaple, probably for testing GS
(due in a few weeks, current is 5.99-fix1).

Second problem: Since the names (should) cover the complete colour-pane, arrows
are currently drawn from the name to the percental position on the right edge.
How can this best achived?
(I'll use a PERL-Script, which reads the name and %-value, so I can do quite
some calculation in it.)

Groetjes,

Tobias

PS: I think if I've done this, I can ship a complete evaluation/ranking script
package for university departments (web interface, fill-out forms, etc) ;-)