[Tex/LaTex] Putting a timeline for dates in moderncv

gradientmoderncvmoderntimelinetikz-pgf

This question led to a new package:
moderntimeline

I just had the idea of using a timeline to specify dates in my CV. I've made a mockup in Inkscape:

mockup

The idea, as you see it, is to display the dates of experience on timelines instead of just typesetting them. I think this makes it nicer and more understandable somehow. When the position is still held, I want to use a gradient at the end of the line. Since I'm using moderncv and it uses lines for sections (like the orange line in front of "Experience"), I would like to calibrate the time lines on this line, setting a start and an end dates corresponding to the extremities of the section line. In my example, the section line goes from 2000 to 2011 for example.

I think using TiKz could do. How would you suggest to implement this? Is there an existing package that would almost do this?

Best Answer

For the record, I have adapted Jake's code and began working on a new package called moderntimeline:

\usepackage{moderntimeline}

% Set the scale.
% I go up to 2013 otherwise some late dates overflow on the entry
\tlmaxdates{1999}{2013}
% Set the line width.
% This automatically sets the space under the top label to be 1pt more
\tlwidth{0.8ex}
% Set the labels text size
\tltext{\tiny}

And then a few examples:

\section{Experience}
\subsection{IT Experience}
\tlcventry[blue]{2006}{0}{Systems Engineer}{\href{http://www.orness.com}{ORNESS} then \href{http://www.alten.fr}{Alten}}{Sophia Antipolis}{}
{Consultant at France T\'el\'ecom
\begin{itemize}
 \item Administration of Cfengine, FAI and the software package repository;
 \item Renewal and industrialization of the software deployment system for Debian/Ubuntu;
 \item Management of the Gforge (collaborative development web interface) platform;
 \item Monitoring of the fleet of servers;
 \item Writing of technical documentation.
\end{itemize}}

tl1

\tllabelcventry[purple]{1999}{2000}{1999--2000}{Paramedic}
  {\href{http://www.croix-rouge.fr/}{French Red Cross}}{Paris Suburbs}{}
  {Served in several volunteer missions as a paramedic}

tl2

\tldatelabelcventry[red]{2004}{July 2004}{Blue Collar Internship}
  {\href{http://www.snecma.com}{SNECMA}}{Moissy-Cramayel}{}
  {Assembled and equilibrated turbo reactors for planes}

tl3

\tldatecventry[green]{2005}{Student in Pedagogy (`Gestion Mentale')}
  {\href{http://www.ifgm.org/}{IFGM}}{Bordeaux}{}
  {Pedagogy, Didacticism, Cognitive Psychology}

tl4

Edit: Since moderncv aligns the left column to the right, there were weird things with dates, so I decided to put a white rectangle all over each entry to make sure the whole space was used. After that, my wife suggested I used a thin line to every entry to make things clearer, so now it looks like this (color and width of the thin line can be set):

tl5

Full examples can be seen in my updated CV.

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