Re: timelines from GEDCOM files

Hi Phil

On Tue, 2008-08-05 at 23:00 -0400, Philip Durbin wrote:
> > 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

OK.

> 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

Hmmm. My Firefox (Iceweasel under Debian) 3.0 displays these last 2
nicely, as expected, i.e. almost full screen, but when I click on
another tab and then go back, they are displayed at 1/4 original size.
WTF?

I've never seen this before, and am happy to blame Firefox for the
artifact. Perhaps that contributes to the problem I mentioned.

> To prevent the truncation, I could simply increase the pixel height of  

Do nothing. I really don't think it's your fault :-)).

> It's certainly possible to use different colors with Simile Timeline.  http://simile.mit.edu/timeline/examples 

That would be an option in our great, new module! Patches to the
non-existent code welcome!

> 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.

More options...

> 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.

Send it to me (with the Bach data if that's ok). I have quite a few
modules on CPAN:

http://search.cpan.org/~rsavage/

and I have free time since I'm only working part-time (most of the time)
(due to choice).

Creating a module means:
o Create various files to help build and ship the module
o Create a class so an object of that class contains the HTML and JS
boilerplate, all in one place
o Create a constructor which you can tell about your datasource and
options
o Process the datasource, perhaps with a specific method call
o Render and relax!

I'll do most of that (but as little as possible :-).

As you can see, the real effort will be separating out your specific
code from code used by everyone.

We'll need a name for the module.

Searching CPAN for timeline found a heap of modules, but it seems only
Net::Flickr::Simile and RT::Extenstion::Timeline refer to
http://simile.mit.edu/timeline

Suggestions? Taken are:
o Date::Timeline
o Graph::Timeline
o Image::Timeline
o Imager::TimelineDiagram
o WebService:TimeLine

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

Great work, and timeline is an eye-opener. Pity I don't have a use for
it, apart from genealogy-type data...

-- 
Ron Savage
[email protected]
http://savage.net.au/index.html