Re: timelines from GEDCOM files

 > I see the same thin Ron sees and I was also wondering about the
 > seemingly missing Info suggested by the "dots".
 >
 > The two date lines seem to be for rough and fine date selection,  
right?

Yes, the lower "band" of dates allows you to move the timeline faster,  
which is especially useful for long timelines, but having more than  
one band is optional.  You can read more about bands here: http://simile.mit.edu/timeline/docs/basics.html

http://savage.net.au/timeline.png does look pretty truncated :(
Here's how the Bach timeline looks in Firefox on my Mac and Linux box:
http://web.mac.com/phildurbin/timelines/macff1.png
http://web.mac.com/phildurbin/timelines/linuxff1.png

To prevent the truncation, I could simply increase the pixel height of  
the timeline div, but then the entire timeline wouldn't fit vertically  
on my screen.  A better solution would be to use CSS to adjust the  
look and feel of the timeline.

 > What would interest me is
 > 1) How would Persons be displayed with only deceased date available?

If there is only a deceased date, my script tosses the person into the  
"Missing" event on the date the script was run.  That's August 2008  
for the Bach timeline.

 > 2) Would it be straight-forward to have dots included in different
 > colors for information like birth, baptism, death and burial? Often
 > times accurate dates for birth and death are not available and  
baptism
 > and burial dates have to be substituted. And I'm thinking of  
different
 > colors because is nice to be able to see the fact of substitution  
right
 > away.

It's certainly possible to use different colors with Simile Timeline.  http://simile.mit.edu/timeline/examples 
  shows the "Life of Monet" with green and blue dots and lines, and  
the "Dinosaurs" timeline replaces dots with little icons of  
dinosaurs. :)

I don't tend to record baptism and burial dates, but retrieving them  
seems to be supported by Gedcom.pm.

 > 3) You've added specific mouse-over info to each name display. Is it
 > also possible to add a specific link to each?

Yes, you can add links, text, and images to the popup window you see  
when you click an event.  Check out the "Life of Monet" example I  
mentioned earlier for some examples.

I could use some guidance on where to go from here with my script (if  
anywhere!).  Ron suggested converting my script into a "stand-alone  
module," but I'm not sure what that would entail as I don't have much  
experience writing modules.  I would be happy to send my script to  
interested parties (off list, for now) for some advice on how to  
improve it.

Thank you very much for your feedback, everyone!  I'm happy to receive  
such a positive response.

Phil