Unintended consequences / retrograde behaviour re 2.6.16 fix of Bug 603379 - Prevent changing some Account Options if it has transactions.

[Wm]

I have long considered it a very-good-thing that gnc allowed accounts to
be moved between formal accounting objects (assets, liabilities, equity,
income, expenses) so long as the plus and minus signs underneath worked.

It looks like fixing 603379 has involved taking much of this freedom
away, I could understand if some "do you really know what you are
doing?" interference was added but do not like this introduction of
nanny at all and I'm not sure if the limit was intentional or
consequential.  More below.

The good news for me is that I have kept a working copy of 2.6.15 which
isn't shackled so I'm ok until the next significant db change.

Reading through the Bugzilla for 603379 I see Geert said on 2017-03-17:13:34
===
The idea is good. Strictly speaking the account type can change as long
as the existing currency/commodity is a valid one for the new account
type or the type is not changing to/from a business account type.
===

Geert is correct and I think somewhere in fixing this that has got lost,
also not involving business account types is a gnc internal thing not an
accounting thing, it is just that the gnc business accounts aren't ready
for this sort of interaction.

So, here are my late night thoughts for other people to think about, add
to, differ with:

If the currency / commodity is unchanged and neither of the account
parents is a business account the change should be allowed.

So I think that sort of takes me in a circle, if we're moving an account
in the tree aren't we by definition leaving currency / commodity
unchanged ?  We're moving it not changing it, right?

and then there is Geert on 2017-03-17:17:06
===
Just a heads up: disallowing the user to change account types is
actually the solution for bug 548021.
===

and that goes back to 2008 / 2009 and then jumps to JohnR making a
comment in 2013 and then account types becoming immutable.

================

Account types are not immutable.  Not in formal accounting or (with some
practical exceptions) in gnc.

I'd like 603379 and the older 548021 to be reviewed with the idea being
that:

flexibility should be allowed where sensible

 and

silly behaviour (5USD can't be 5GBP most of the time, 10IBM shares can't
be 10CIA shares any time, etc) should be prevented.

-- 
Wm