On Monday 18 April 2011 03:09:53 Walter wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> Does anyone have a good solution to generate timelines?
>
> Features that are required:
> - Allows marking of both specific events ("point in time") and
> periods ("range in time")
>
> Features that are highly desired:
> - Properly functional unicode support (right to left support not
> required at this stage, but otherwise font switching for arbitrary
> languages)
>
> Features that would be a bonus:
> - Handles the case of 'so many elements you'd be lucky to get them to
> fit on a page' elegantly (eg: by scaling layout down to a minimum
> threshold size for legibility, then page-splitting)
> - Accepts input as a simply delimited text file (ala graphviz .dot
> files or mscgen .msc files)
>
> Any recommendations would be appreciated.
>
> I have seen a few non-LyX specific solutions already but they all seem
> to lack what I want. Having said that, if all else fails I suppose I
> could try to write one (with only required features), maybe call it
> 'escgen' (event sequent chart generator) in deference to its high
> quality predecessor. However, it seems like a good example in raw TeX
> would be enough for me to get some macros going and a more elegant
> solution (ie: no need to re-implement unicode font support, no need to
> step out to an external generation/update process). Could anyone point
> one out?
>
> Cheers
>
> - Walter
Hi Walter,
That would be SUCH a cool addition to LyX (or anything else). Timelines are
the kind of thing that when you need them, you *really* need them.
Am I correct to assume that it would take the form of several lines per page,
each with a certain arbitrary range of dates, along with specific dates,
events and ranges? Sort of like sheet music, right?
One thing I'd caution about. You said:
> - Handles the case of 'so many elements you'd be lucky to get them to
> fit on a page' elegantly (eg: by scaling layout down to a minimum
> threshold size for legibility, then page-splitting)
There's a huge, very wide variation in visual acuities out there, and if I
were you I wouldn't make the fonts too small. Better take extra pages. The way
I see it, there's absolutely no excuse for going less than 11 point on
anything, 12 point is better, and if normal LyX did 14 point, I might be using
14 point.
I don't know whether plain old LaTeX handles Unicode, but if it does, your
desire doesn't sound undoable in LaTeX. I bet you could write a script in Lua,
Perl, Python or Ruby that takes a date file (all the dates and date ranges and
their names), and a properties file (margins, years per line, whether to page
break before and/or after the timeline), and have your program write the LaTeX
for inclusion in your LyX document. Or maybe you could have the properties be
LaTeX commands, make up some environments and commands, and have the LaTeX in
your new LaTeX command or whatever read from the date file.
All I know is this would be really cool, and please let us know when you've
found a solution.
SteveT
Steve Litt
Recession Relief Package
http://www.recession-relief.US
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/stevelitt
