Is TiKZ the best package for schemes with arrows, lines, etc?

Question

I'd like to make a sort of scheme where historical events are linked through lines that indicate causes of those events, consequences and other information.

I've tried looking around in the PGF examples (great and useful site), and found things like Borrowers and Lenders, but the syntax looks a bit hard to understand. An example of what I want to do (not strictly looking like this, just to get the idea) would be that one, or this.

Click image for bigger version.

(Source)

Is TiKZ the best package to do this? By best I mean: easier to use, with more options, more customizable, etc... Or are there better ways to achieve the same result?

Answer 1

You need to analyze correctly the graph. Firstly you can define all the nodes of each column with the same style. You can use positioning to place the nodes. The main column is easy to draw, for the other column, I show you some difficulties like [left= of m1.south west,anchor=north east] and [left= of $(m2.west)!.5!(m3.west)$ ].

\documentclass[11pt]{scrartcl}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{%
  arrows,positioning,
  calc
}

\begin{document}
  \small
\begin{tikzpicture} 
 % main column nb 3
\begin{scope}[node distance=1.5em,
             every node/.style={align=center,text width=10em,draw,ultra thick}]
    \node (m1) {Soc. Anonima\\
               Marca Corona\\
               1934};
    \node (m2) [above= of m1] {MMMMMMMMMMM\\
                              xxxxxxxxxxxxx\\   
                              1932};
    \node (m3) [above= of m2] {MMMMMMMMMMM\\
                               xxxxxxxxxxxxx\\   
                                1920};  
    \node (m4) [above= of m3] {MMMMMMMMMMM\\
                               xxxxxxxxxxxxx\\   
                               1910};  
    \node (m5) [above=4.5em of m4] {MMMMMMMMMMM\\
                                    xxxxxxxxxxxxx\\
                                    1869}; 

\end{scope}

 % main column nb 2 
\begin{scope}[node distance=.75em,every node/.style={align=center,text width=10em,draw}]

  \node (l1) [left= of m1.south west,anchor=north east] {SAIME\\
                        \ \\
                        1932};  
    \node (l2) [left= of $(m2.west)!.5!(m3.west)$ ] {LLLLLLLLLL\\
                          xxxxxxxxxxxxx\\   
                          1926};  
    \node (l3) [left= of m4] {LLLLLLLLLL\\
                          xxxxxxxxxxxxx\\   
                         1911};  
    \node (l4) [left= of m5] {LLLLLLLLLL\\
                          xxxxxxxxxxxxx\\
                          1869}; 
\end{scope}                         

%edges 
\draw[ultra thick] (m1)--(m2)   (m2)--(m3)   (m3)--(m4)    (m4)--(m5) ; 
\draw[dashed] (l1) |- (m2);
\coordinate [above=.5em of m4] (line);
\draw[dotted] ($(line) + (-8,0)$) -- ($(line) + (8,0)$);                          
\end{tikzpicture} 
\end{document}