[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
> It's been rumoured that Matt Armstrong said:
> >
> > I just ran across a personal finance package for Gnome:
> >
> > http://jagger.me.berkeley.edu/~dfisher/gnofin/
> >
> > Its goals are much simpler than GnuCash. It even claims that "if you
> > are looking for a feature-rich money management application, you
> > should really consider using GnuCash instead."
>
> The screenshots resemble the older xacc from which gnucash
> descended. Given the mail I get, it seems like xacc is plenty
> enough for a lot of people; I suppose that there must be some sort
> of lesson in the creeping-featuritis that gnucash has (and that is I
> suppose my fault).
As a new-comer to gnucash I can see the project through the eyes of an
outsider. It is clear that it is a long way before a stable gnucash
is ready for release. What isn't so clear is what features will be in
that release. http://linas.org/linux/xacc/projects.html is very good
from a high level perspective, but it is missing a "here's what we're
doing for the 1.2 release" section. As a prospective developer, what
am I really contributing to?
> One lesson I would draw from this is to maybe have
> beginner/intermediate/advanced modes for gnucash, and/or have these
> as separate executables. The current set of menu entries, & the
> dialogue layouts are kind of "intermediate" in nature, and may be a
> bit daunting for the beginer.
I don't like global beginner/intermediate/advanced modes. But I think
a lot of complexity can be hidden behind things that require the
"advanced" setting to be on.
Then again, whenever I get a program I go through it and turn all the
advanced settings on. Maybe I don't have the right perspective.
> The other lesson is that gnucash has been & continues to be too hard
> to build, too hard to install for most folks. This is in great
> contrast to xacc (and probably gnofin), which was a simple,
> self-contained system which "just works".
Yes. A lot of the gnucash support modules are either not commonly
used (XmHTML, guile, etc.) or are still unstable (gnome, etc.).
I think the responsability is on gnucash folks to supply the relevant
RPMs and FAQs for installing all the stuff gnucash needs. A lot of
the questions are "where is the RPM for XYZ" so having an organized
answer for that would be good.
> Finally I wonder if gnucash is too hard to develop for & debug,
> because its grown big enough to have some significant internal
> complexity. I don't know what can be done about this, if anything
> should be done, I suspect this is a fact of life...
I think the guile integration will both turn some people away and
allow others to contribute at the same time.
--
matt - http://www.lickey.com
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