Don, Don, Don: On 2020-08-11 12:36, doncram wrote:
… there is an anti-accounting vibe in the GnuCash community, which is objectively an insulting, arrogant, unyielding strain.… the computer programmers who have developed GnuCash and who support it… the computer programmer types, or at least the effective collection of them if not every one individually, are being real jerks.…
First of all, if you think that the vibe in the GnuCash community is "insulting, arrogant, unyielding"; if you think that the GnuCash developers are "being real jerks", then you haven't seen nearly enough of the Internet and of free software projects. The GnuCash community is a respectful vacation resort compared to some projects to which I contribute. The GnuCash developers are usually kind and helpful, and at the very worst, sometimes a touch impatient with requests they are unable to fulfill. The documentation is extensive and at least somewhat helpful.
And I see that you put in a little separation between the computer programmers who developed GnuCash, and all those bad programmers, but when you unload on "the effective collection of them" you unload on all of them.
… They are willfully ignorant of how real organizations work, of real requirements of individual GnuCash users or would-be users, in this area.… What part of the following do u not understand: a) [requirement 1 omitted], and b) [requirement 2 omitted]. That's enough, but further, there is c) [requirement 3 omitted] required by law in Sweden (kudos to the sensible government there), and are sensible requirements to be imposed upon any organization in its software choice.… It is arrogant of computer programmer types to say the requirements a and b are silly. They ignorantly think the only purpose of "freezing" is to completely absolutely stop computer programmers. You probably think this song is about you.…
I understand this is a rant, and rants can be fun, and fun things can go a bit too far. But do you see that you are sliding into self-parody here? You probably think this song is about _you_.
How is it that you get to say the target user you imagine is the only one that matters to GnuCash, and that the usage conditions you imagine are the only ones that matter, and that requirements 1, 2, and 3 are absolutely mandatory? There are other target users, there are other target conditions, where these requirements are not essential, and their lack is not especially a problem. Where is your humility that others — even accountants who aren't software developers — might evaluate these differently than you?
Framing this discussion as "accountants are correct versus software developers are arrogant" is not helpful. Let's judge the ideas, not the people who hold them.
Meanwhile, I think Fred Bone's suggestion is very useful:
On Tue, Aug 11, 2020 at 10:24 AM Fred Bone <[email protected]> wrote: There seems to be a fair amount of talking at cross purposes. There are (at least) two reasons for wanting to "lock" against changing txns before some specified date: 1. To freeze the file for audit/regulatory purposes 2. To prevent accidental unwanted "backdating" of changes Gnucash's mechanism is well suited to (2) but completely useless for (1). Conversely, your suggestion is well suited to (1) but completely useless for (2). This whole discussion rears its ugly head at (ir-)regular intervals and perhaps should be in a FAQ document somewhere.
Let's write down this discussion in terms of a) target users, b) scope of usage conditions, and c) GnuCash features needed to allow those users to do better in those conditions using GnuCash. We may discover that we are talking about different users, and different scopes, than the modest ambitions GnuCash currently targets. GnuCash can grow to accomplish more, but that takes participation, not just criticism.
—Jim DeLaHunt, not a trained accountant, self-accounting for personal finances and a small sole-proprietor business, not needing audits, not complying with Swedish accounting legislation, for whom none of these locking features add any value.
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