On Fri, 03 Feb 2006 18:29:52 +0000
"Andrew Duggan" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

>  From: Derek Atkins [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > 
> >    Would you rather be able to always read a data file created in a new
> >    version of gnucash using an older version of gnucash, where saving that
> >    data file will lose data when you re-open it in the new version, or would
> >    you rather the older version of gnucash fail to load the data when it
> >    sees data it doesn't understand in order to prevent accidental data loss?
> > 
> > -derek
> 

>Personally, I would recommend that you just warn the user on opening the file 
>that if they save it, they *will* lose data related to features from all newer 
>versions. Conversely you could warn them at the save time, and have the 
>default answer to the dialog be "Cancel", and maybe an option to "save as" 
>instead? Maybe warn at both open and save time? That I guess doesn't solve the 
>1.8 -> 2.0 problem, but the concept makes the users responsible for their own 
>choices. At the end of the day it is impossible to "out-smart" via programming 
>a user bent on being stupid or foolish or who is just naive. Even with that 
>you can't *make* users read warning dialogs.


My  unsolicited pennies as well. total below.

First, how many users are actually going to move back to 1.8? I think the 
anticipation of 2.0 will cause a mass migration and you'll have next to no 1.8 
users within short order.

I haven't followed the whole thread in-depth, but it seems to me the simplest 
thing to do is to have 2.0 notify the user, on opening a 1.8 file that "You are 
opening a file that was made by an older version of gnucash. This version of 
gnucash contains features that are unsupported in the older version. Any 
changes made to this file will not be supported in the older version and may 
result in loss of data if you attempt to use an older version of gnucash. A 
backup of your original 1.8 version of this file has been created at *.gnc1.8"

This way you've warned the user, you've left them with a file that can still be 
read with 1.8 (granted it has no NEW info in it), and you've done it all in 2.0 
without touching 1.8.  This is based on the assumption that 2.0 can tell when 
its opening a 1.8 file, and I don't know about that. If not, then it should be 
fairly simple to tag the file as being a 2.0 file, so all others default to the 
warning.

As a heavy user, I'd be more than satisfied with the above solution. It would 
allow me to try out 2.0 for a little while, and if I don't like it, I can 
regress to the old version and the backup file and only have to recreate a few 
days of material.

my .02

A

> 
> Just a couple of unsolicited cents.
> 
> Andrew
> 
>  
> 
> 
> 
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