In a message dated: 15 Oct 1999 09:18:22 +0300
Alexandru Harsanyi said:
>My question is, however, why does not take one the qif specification,
>decide on a set of transalations (by discution, of course) and write a
>decent import code? If the actual code is decent, why are so many
>people complaining ? :)
Well, I'm not one of the developers, but I'll take a stab at answering this
one :)
Part of the problem is that it's not just as simple as creating a qif import
translation. The qif has undergone format changes over the years, and
seems to be slightly different depending upon which version of Quicken one is
using. Doing an import of a qif file into GNUCash would require GNUCash
knowing which qif format the file is in ahead of time, and then running the
proper translation code.
At best case, there are only 2 forms of the qif format, which would require
GNUCash to have 2 different translation engines for importing the file.
Obviously no one wants to write the same thing twice, never mind more than
that. So if there are more than 2 qif formats, then that means someone has to
essentially re-invent the wheel many times over.
My understanding is that GNUCash currently only supports the older version of
the qif format (please correct me if I'm wrong). IMO, as a potential user of
GNUCash, I'd much rather have the time and talent of the developers spent on
making GNUCash as stable and easy to use and with as much functionality as
possible rather than wasting time on continually re-inventing the wheel. I
don't know about anyone else, but qif import seems like the thing that most
people will only do on a very infrequent basis. I only plan on using it to
get my data *out* of Quicken and *into* GNUCash. Once it's there, and I start
using GNUCash fulltime, I don't really see the need to qif import any longer,
since I won't be importing from Quicken very much. (Though, I do use Qmate on
my Palm Pilot which can export to qif format, so maybe it will be handy :)
Hope that helps.
--
Seeya,
Paul
----
Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm.
There cannot be a crisis today; my schedule is already full.
A conclusion is simply the place where you got tired of thinking.
If you're not having fun, you're not doing it right!
--
Gnucash Developer's List
To unsubscribe send empty email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
