Jogl Push/Pop Matrix not working or I misunderstand - jogl

Question

So I have the following calls in my display. the display method has no calls to any state change methods other than loadIdentity. The display method then calls the following.
gl.glPushMatrix();
gl.glRotated(m_angle, 1.0, 1.0, 0.0);
m_angle += 5;
cubeBySquare(gl,0.2);
gl.glTranslated( 0.5, 0.0 , 0.0 );
cubeByVertex(gl,0.2);
gl.glPopMatrix();
The two methods are shown below - basically one attempts to draw a cube using rotate and translate (cubeBySquare) and the other succeeds in drawing a cube by specifying all of the vertices explicitly (cubeByVertex).
protected void cubeBySquare(GL2 gl,double side)
{
/*
* front - blue
*
* draw the square and leave it where it is on XY plane
*/
gl.glPushMatrix();
gl.glColor3d(0.0,0.0,1.0);
square(gl,side);
gl.glPopMatrix();
/*
* back - green
*
* draw square and push it backwards on the Z axis
*/
gl.glPushMatrix();
gl.glColor3d(0.0,1.0,0.0);
gl.glTranslated( 0.0 , 0.0 , -side);
square(gl,side);
gl.glPopMatrix();
/*
* lhs - cyan
*
* draw square and rotate -90 around Y axis
*/
gl.glPushMatrix();
gl.glColor3d(0.0,1.0,1.0);
gl.glRotated(-90, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0);
square(gl,side);
gl.glPopMatrix();
/*
* rhs - red
*
* draw square, rotate -90 aeound Y axis, translate to rhs on X axis
*/
gl.glPushMatrix();
gl.glColor3d(1.0,0.0,0.0);
gl.glRotated(-90, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0);
gl.glTranslated( side, 0.0 , 0.0 );
square(gl,side);
gl.glPopMatrix();
/*
* top - mauve
*
* draw square, rotate -90 around X axis, translate along Y axis
*/
gl.glPushMatrix();
gl.glColor3d(1.0,0.0,1.0);
gl.glRotated( 90, 1.0, 0.0, 0.0);
gl.glTranslated( 0.0 , side , 0.0 );
square(gl,side);
gl.glPopMatrix();
/*
* bottom - yellow
*
* draw square, rotate -90 around X-axis
*/
gl.glPushMatrix();
gl.glColor3d(1.0,1.0,0.0);
gl.glRotated(-90, 1.0, 0.0, 0.0);
square(gl,side);
gl.glPopMatrix();
}
protected void cubeByVertex(GL2 gl,double side)
{
gl.glBegin(GL_QUADS); // of the color cube
// Front - blue
gl.glColor3d(0.0, 0.0, 1.0);
gl.glVertex3d( 0.0 , 0.0 , 0.0 );
gl.glVertex3d( side, 0.0 , 0.0 );
gl.glVertex3d( side, side, 0.0 );
gl.glVertex3d( 0.0 , side, 0.0 );
// Back - green
gl.glColor3d(0.0, 1.0, 0.0);
gl.glVertex3d( 0.0 , 0.0 , -side);
gl.glVertex3d( side, 0.0 , -side);
gl.glVertex3d( side, side, -side);
gl.glVertex3d( 0.0 , side, -side);
// Left - cyan
gl.glColor3d(0.0, 1.0, 1.0);
gl.glVertex3d( 0.0 , 0.0 , 0.0 );
gl.glVertex3d( 0.0 , 0.0 , -side);
gl.glVertex3d( 0.0 , side, -side);
gl.glVertex3d( 0.0 , side, 0.0 );
// Right - red
gl.glColor3d(1.0, 0.0, 0.0);
gl.glVertex3d( side, 0.0 , 0.0 );
gl.glVertex3d( side, 0.0 , -side);
gl.glVertex3d( side, side, -side);
gl.glVertex3d( side, side, 0.0 );
// Top - mauve
gl.glColor3d(1.0, 0.0, 1.0);
gl.glVertex3d( 0.0 , side, 0.0 );
gl.glVertex3d( side, side, 0.0 );
gl.glVertex3d( side, side, -side);
gl.glVertex3d( 0.0 , side, -side);
// Bottom - yellow
gl.glColor3d(1.0, 1.0, 0.0);
gl.glVertex3d( 0.0 , 0.0 , 0.0 );
gl.glVertex3d( side, 0.0 , 0.0 );
gl.glVertex3d( side, 0.0 , -side);
gl.glVertex3d( 0.0 , 0.0 , -side);
gl.glEnd(); // of the color cube
}
The result is unexpected as you can see in the image. I have tried to see where my logic is wrong but I cannot find any thing unexpected. It looks to me like the push/pop matrix is not really clearing the matrix from the stack. Which probably means I am not using it correctly - yet it looks like most of the examples for hierarchical drawing that I have found on the web.
It seem there is no way to include an image here which make the explanation clumsy.
Basically thr cubeBySquare version rotates and translates all over the shop and not where I expect - thinking previous rotate and translates are affecting the more recent endering even though I have each square bracketed by push/pop matrix

Answer 1

After racking my brains for the last 3 days. Suddenly the light dawned - the order of applying rotation then translation was messing with my head. I forgot the rotation meant that the coordinate system had rotated so after this point the use of absolute coordinates when the frame of reference had rotated meant all sorts of unexpected results - give my incorrect assumption.
Slightly embarrassed but happy to finally understand.