problem with chronology package

Question

I want to do a horizontal time line. I find this script:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{chronology}
\begin{document}
\begin{chronology}[5]{1983}{2010}{3ex}{\textwidth}
\event{1984}{one}
\event[1985]{1986}{two}
\event{\decimaldate{25}{12}{2001}}{three}
\end{chronology}
\end{document}

It should produces a horizontal time line. I get errors.

timeline-text.tex(4): Error: Missing number, treated as zero. timeline-text.tex(4): Error: Illegal unit of measure (pt inserted).

Can you help? Also, some of the replies in the post where I got the code from: HERE says that the package does not accept more than one time line in the document? is this true?

Answer 1

The last argument is optional, not mandatory and so should use brackets. It is not quite clear what is its purpose but it seems to allow scaling: the timeline is created in the size of arg #5 and then scaled to arg #4 (this also means that arg #4 shouldn't be too small.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{chronology}
\begin{document}

\begin{chronology}[5]{1983}{2010}{\textwidth}
\event{1984}{oneD}
\event[1985]{1986}{two}
\event{\decimaldate{25}{12}{2001}}{three}
\end{chronology}

abc

\begin{chronology}[5]{1983}{2010}{10cm}[\textwidth]
\event{1984}{oneD}
\event[1985]{1986}{two}
\event{\decimaldate{25}{12}{2001}}{three}
\end{chronology}

abc

abc

\begin{chronology}[5]{1983}{2010}{10cm}[0.2\textwidth]
\event{1984}{oneD}
\event[1985]{1986}{two}
\event{\decimaldate{25}{12}{2001}}{three}
\end{chronology}

abc

\end{document}