three different business accounts

[David Carlson]

On 4/29/2012 6:53 AM, Mike or Penny Novack wrote:
>
>>  
>>
>>> So I just learned that in Ubuntu Gnucash does not treat Linux links as
>>> it treats Windows shortcuts.
>>>   
>>
>>
>> This is a feature of whatever desktop is in use.
>>
>> It is not a feature of Gnucash.
>>
>> Just to muddy the waters, I'm using a desktop which doesn't support
>> desktop links at all.
>>  
>>
> An explanation for the non 'nix folks out there.
>
> You think you are interacting with your operating system directly. You
> are not. Because your Windows operating system or Mac operating system
> is coming with only one "desktop" you think THAT is the operating
> system. By "desktop" I mean your "windows manager" that gives you a
> GUI interface with the operating system underneath. This is more
> obvious to linux users because their linux installations almost always
> offer them a CHOICE of which of several windows managers/desktops they
> prefer to use. So for them clear that the windows manager/desktop is
> distinct from the operating system.
>
> Michael
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Of course there are differences under the hood.  But somehow Gimp,
LibreOffice and many other Linux programs running in Linux environments
seem to be able to mimic the behavior of the interaction between the
Windows "Shortcut" and the several different Windows programs that may
be able to open and manipulate the same file behind the "Shortcut" in
the file's 'home folder'.  The concept of the shortcut or link is to
serve as a pointer, not an object.

Or is it that Windows programs can use "Shortcuts" to mimic the behavior
of Linux "Links"?

I personally can recall first learning about how to use this
relationship to advantage in OS/2 Warp.  I believe that the concept
first appeared in another operating system.  Could that have been Unix? 
Any Bell Labs alumni out there?

Now that we have relatively mature GUI's  for currently used operating
systems, users can see the 'objects', click on them and drag them
around.  We no longer care what is happening under the hood, just as we
don't care what our web browser is doing under the hood, as long as we
get results.

I am sure that one of the beauties of Linux is that there are two basic
flavors of "Links".

Lets move on to the concept of interoperability between operating
systems, and methods to 'port over' programs developed for one operating
system into other operating systems.  Most high level programs face the
challenge of meeting the basic requirements of interfacing programs with
files. (A few programs only interface with devices.)  Because the
program|file interface is mandatory for any operating environment, all
attempts to facilitate the use of high level code in multiple low level
environments must have tools to implement that conceptual interface in
any of the targeted low level environments.

Do Java programmers care what OS their programs run in?  Perl?  GTK+? 
Only to the extent of selecting and using tools that work in all of the
targeted environments.  Aha.  Use high level tools that are supported by
compilers for multiple operating systems.  If these tools do not exist,
the programmer is using the wrong toolbox.

The fact that so many competitive programs can use either Linux "Links"
or Windows "Shortcuts" successfully in the respectively popular GUI's
suggests that the tools are there.  Find them.  Use them.

David C
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