I guess the complexity I'm trying to resolve here is this: For any given posting there are three possible amounts:
-O The quantity, or the "amount" of the posting -B The optional cost (per-unit or combined) -I The optional annotated price (fixed or not fixed) When you create a report, you want one of these three. Then you want a reported commodity. Sometimes this is determined by context (-V), sometimes you want a specific commodity that isn't present in any of these three (-X COMM). Then, on top of all that, is the date from which pricing translations are to be made. Sometimes you want the price current at the time of the posting (fixed price commodity), sometimes you want the current price, sometimes you want a specific date (--now=DATE). And even THEN, sometimes within a single report you want multiple combinations of these various details, with specific combinations determined based on the context of usage (which account was involved, which commodities were involved, when did they happen, etc). I can either try to invent syntax so that all of the amounts in the final report mean what you expect them to mean; or I can require you to make multiple reports, each with an explicit set of options so that Ledger doesn't try to automate any of it. Already it's been noticed that Ledger has no way of saying, "Make -V use historical values". John
