I have finished the first module of the Timeline project I proposed last week. It comprises a short VBA program that converts a date (year only) from any calendar system to all of the others. It does this by first converting all dates to Common Year, and then converting the generated Common Year date into all of the published dating systems. I would ask three things from the community:
1. Can anyone either host the file, or show me how to post a file to Canonfire… I do not maintain a website, nor do I plan to, and submitting a download appears to require a web-link.
2. Try to break it. Test out the program by putting in various dates and then click the reconciler button. Only one year should normally be inputted in any row (additional inputs should not be a problem, but do not help the program). Bear in mind, that in order to read a row, there must be an event description in the proper column… if there is no description, the program will cease reading rows. Let me know how well it works, and if there are any errors in the date conversions. I have assumed that none of the dating systems have a Year 0, but please correct me if I am wrong. I have an error checker for not inputting any dates, or a CY of 0, but I am leaning to putting in a more comprehensive one covering all of the calendar systems.
3. Give me your insight.
a. How can I make it better? What features in the year conversion system do you need/want?
b. Am I missing any dating systems? Am I correct to assume that no calendar has a Year 0?
c. Does anyone know the full name of the Touv dating system?
d. I am only planning to take months (and festival weeks) in CY format. Outside of the Olven, Touv, and ambiguous “Nomad” calendar, are there any list of, say, Suel, Flan, etc. months/festivals? Has anyone seen dates recorded using those months?
e. Please look at the notes on each column, and give me your inputs, suggestions. I am trying to be comprehensive with categories, so please share your ideas.
f. Finally, let me know anything that I can change. If you hate the font, let me know. If you think I should expand one cell, let me know. I want to make this professional looking and something that people are happy to use.
Great Scott! This couldn't BE any more perfect. I have a personal project working on the Sundered Empire of western Oerik in which I have to reconcile dates from the Chainmail setting to comparable CY dating, and I am consistently trying to reconcile that with other dates from other calendars. This couldn't BE a more useful tool.
I will use it consistently,and try to find any bugs.
[after fiddling with it a bit]
Is there any chance that a column for the Sundered Empire could be added? We know that CY586 = 1008. But, much like the Touv calendar, there's no "name" given ... just things like "in the year 1008".
Also ... I am not certain how it's intended to work in one regard. I can only enter dates in the one row. Should we be able to make a list of dates? For example, if I wanted to add my own event (even once you completed the whole thing) should I be able to type into a new row and fill it in with my own information (say, for something that happened in a home game) and reconcile it to get dates across the board? I'm guessing that right now it's just the one line for ease of coding, but, will we be able to add stuff in, in the future?
Also, just for clarity's sake - we can only enter a CY date, right? Not a SD, for example, and have it reconcile to figure out a CY?
And lastly ... I realize now that I had (rather unintentionally) calculated a whole slew of dates with a year ) included. You've asked a good question in whether or not all calendars should be calculated that way. I never even thought of it when using a calculator to get dates that were in the negatives on one calendar or the other. It's not such a big deal in SD, but, when calculating to events that were -2000 CY, it makes a difference, I s'pose ... it will be good to see if there are those - such as Rasgon - who have definitive answers for something like this. _________________ Owner and Lead Admin: https://greyhawkonline.com<div>Editor-in-Chief of the Oerth Journal: https://greyhawkonline.com/oerthjournal</div><div>Visit my professional art gallery: https://wkristophnolen.daportfolio.com</div>
I could easily insert a Sundered Empire column. I am not familiar with it, but if you could send me information on its calendar and dating system, it would fairly easy to do at this stage in the project.
As for the lines, you can enter dates as far down as you want. All you need to do is make sure that there is a corresponding event in the same row, or the program will not look for dates. You can enter a date under any calendar system as the program exists now, and I intend to keep that functionality. The program looks from the events and then moves left along the year columns until it finds the first one. Then all calculations are based on that column. I recommend only inputting one date per row, just to check, as in some published works the dates do not line up properly (no year 0).
As far as what events you can add... my goal is to make a comprehensive (note I no longer say canonical) timeline including all published Greyhawk material. At that point, if someone wants to take that timeline, and then add their own events, it will be fully capable of integrating them into it. Note, that by integrating, I mean taking the new information, adding it to the existing database, and then putting them all in chronological order and ready to be searched. It will not alert you to double entries or the like (I am not that skilled, and Excel is not the right program for that).
I could easily insert a Sundered Empire column. I am not familiar with it, but if you could send me information on its calendar and dating system, it would fairly easy to do at this stage in the project.
Please, continue to do your worst.
Well ... the essential part of it is that there is little known about the calendar itself. There aren't any real descriptions or anything, except the years themselves. Most of the history runs from about 500 to 1020 or so. There's no "AD" or "CY" appended to it, and it doesn't match up with any other calender. I'm not even certain that it's ever said at what date the calendar begins or what type of years it is counting (common years? years in the reign of a king? Years since some religious event?). The only thing that we ultimately have is that in 591CY, it is reported as being the fifth year of the God War, which we know started in 1008. Therefore, 586CY = 1008. Other than that, the dates line up mathematically. I have done the conversion math for most of the events that I ever cared to learn, although there is a scarcity of actual dates given (the setting had a distinct lack of canon, since it was mostly for miniatures.) I can't guarantee that everyone would like to have that extra date column in there, even though I would like to see it.
The only thing that we ultimately have is that in 591CY, it is reported as being the fifth year of the God War, which we know started in 1008. Therefore, 586CY = 1008.
Just a quick math note: If 591 CY is the 5th year of the God War, then 587 CY was the 1st year.
The only thing that we ultimately have is that in 591CY, it is reported as being the fifth year of the God War, which we know started in 1008. Therefore, 586CY = 1008.
Just a quick math note: If 591 CY is the 5th year of the God War, then 587 CY was the 1st year.
Tarelton: Just a quick note. When all of the debugging has been done, you need only e-mail me the final file and I will update the downloads page file and information. You may also wish to revise the brief description, telling what the program does exactly for those who have found the download in the Downloads section and who are not aware of the informative details presented in the project threads. For example,
"This is a short VBA program that converts a date (year only) from any calendar system(i.e. Common Year, Suloise, Olven, Bakluni, Flannae, Oerid) to all of the others. It does this by first converting all dates to Common Year, and then converting the generated Common Year date into all of the published dating systems. It is an ExCel macro-enabled workbook."
That actually might cover everything well enough right there. If there are some other small and useful features, such as being able to include notes for a date, they could be mentioned as well. _________________ - Moderator/Admin (in some areas)/Member -
Cebrion: Again, thank you for hosting this initial iteration. I will certainly send you the next version (v1.1) once it is ready. So far, the goal for the next version is to include the Sundered Empire dating system, enter the other data to the right of the event (source, category, et. al.), and then load it into the data base (the easiest part). I expect version 1.3 to include a means of ordering the dates not just on year, but within the years (i.e. by season, month, and date). This will probably be the most complex aspect of the loader. However, I am going to wait a few more days for feedback on 1.0 so I can make efficient use of my time.
Everyone: Keep the ideas and what you want to see coming; the more that is communicated earlier, the easier it is to program it. Things I am still really looking for:
Any other month lists (i.e. do we know how the Suel, Baklunish, etc. reckoned months).
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If there are some other small and useful features, such as being able to include notes for a date, they could be mentioned as well.