Future of Gnucash

[Phil Longstaff]

The subject sounds a bit ominous, but I don't mean it to be.

2.4.0 is now out the door.  Already there are ideas rolling in about the
next enhancements.  I was just about to tackle one of the enhancements
when instead, I thought I would (again) raise a broader issue.

A few months ago, Christian Stimming started CuteCash with the aims of
replacing gtk by Qt/C++.  The idea was that development in gtk/C was too
slow and cumbersome.

So, the big question is: should we set a direction to have CuteCash
replace GnuCash, and if so, what are the steps/milestones to get there?

Obviously, since this is all open-source, it's not either/or.  One group
could continue with GnuCash as it is while the other develops CuteCash.
Personally, I like the idea of CuteCash and would prefer to develop for
Qt/C++ rather than gtk/C.  On the other hand, until CuteCash catches up
in features to GnuCash, if I want any new functionality, it has to go
into GnuCash.

So, among the questions I will raise:
1) Does the current set of engine objects make sense?  They currently
are gobjects and CuteCash has C++ wrappers.  I guess they need to stay
that way until CuteCash replaces GnuCash, at which point the C++
wrappers could become the official public API.

2) Does QOF still make sense?  Back in the earlier days of the SQL
backend, there was a proposal to replace qof with libgda (gnome data
access layer) which might be a step toward gnucash as a database app.

3) Should I hesitate to introduce new gobjects?  One thing I want to do
is replace the current preferences with a better system for managing
global vs per-file preferences on a system vs per-user basis.  My idea
is a GncPrefs gobject interface with
get_int()/set_int()/get_string()/set_string()/... functions.  These
could be implemented to use gconf on linux, the registry on windows, etc
to better tie into native preferences systems.

My preference is to work on the under-the-covers stuff and leave the
UI/functionality to others.  Christian, do you have a roadmap for
CuteCash to help it catch up to Gnucash in functionality?

Phil