Old file requires newer version?

[Mike or Penny Novack]

>>    
>>
>
>The file contains a top-level element that the current version of Gnucash doesn't know about, and we blindly assume that it's from a newer, rather than an older, version. 
>
>Unfortunately, in order to use this file with a current Gnucash you'll need to find and install intermediate old versions to upgrade the data to a form that the current Gnucash can understand. This will likely be quite difficult.
>
>Regards,
>John Ralls
>  
>
WHOA!  That's a SERIOUS "bug" situation.

Are you saying that all of us who do not upgrade each and every version 
are screwed? There are good reasons why working software is left 
untouched until there is NEED for some new feature, etc.

I for one, would need a fix for this. I am using a very old version for 
all the books I maintain. I was about to add another (another 
organization) of which I will be bookkeeper for an event but not the 
organizational bookkeeper. I was proposing to use gnucash for this under 
the (apparently unwise) assumption that it would be easy for this person 
to obtain a copy of the software so as to be able to read what I sent him.

At the very least, identify for us and make available all necessary 
"data conversion" versions. That should NOT be "trial and error" on the 
part of the user. Especially since for some of us obtaining software 
isn't trivial (load a portable computer into the car, drive to some more 
urban area where bandwidth is available, etc.) Thus I usually only use 
software that somebody has distributed on medium. That is true for SOME 
versions of gnucash (how I originally got it) but they don't do every 
version.

OR --- possibly something to fix the older files?

Michael D Novack