Free software for complex timelines

Question

I'm searching for a software (bestly free or at least really cheap) for time-lines which:

• would be easy to use and user friendly
• will be useful to both dayily (or even hourly) and years, centuries o millenium timeframes (so easily scallable)
• could operate on few connected timelines with time dilatation (for example for different dimensions, where for exeample 1 day in first dimension is equivalent to 2 days in second) bestly also with two side regular events (like portal which open just once in - let's say 20 days in first dimension. Then each opening will be paired with opening in other dimension... but there will be 40 days between them)
• (optional) support for different time and calendar systems (like year which is not 365 day long, day not 24 hour long, hour not 60 minutes long minute not 60 second long etc.)
• (optional) spliting timeline for different threads

Is there anything like this?

Answer 1

I use Timeline, which is open source and can be found at SourceForge

I haven't tried different rates of time passage (that would be really useful in both fantasy and science fiction). I do use it to show events taking place in the ordinary world and timelines of important characters.

The file that drives the timeline is in XML and can have multiple timelines on the page and each timeline can have an unlimited number of entries. You can use the GUI to create timelines and events, or you can edit the file. Entries look like this:

<category>
  <name>Hero's Journey</name>
  <color>0,128,128</color>
  <progress_color>153,254,255</progress_color>
  <done_color>153,254,255</done_color>
  <font_color>255,255,255</font_color>
</category>
<category>
  <name>Eddie's Journey</name>
  <color>64,128,128</color>
  <progress_color>153,255,204</progress_color>
  <done_color>153,255,204</done_color>
  <font_color>255,255,255</font_color>
  <parent>Hero's Journey</parent>
</category>

<event>
  <start>1947-09-23 12:31:00</start>
  <end>1947-09-23 12:31:00</end>
  <text>(14)Call to Adventure</text>
  <progress>0</progress>
  <fuzzy>False</fuzzy>
  <locked>False</locked>
  <ends_today>False</ends_today>
  <category>Eddie's Journey</category>
  <default_color>200,200,200</default_color>
</event>

Hope this helps.