major changes coming up

[Derek Atkins]

I presume that the patched version will still be able to READ the old
binary format, for upgrade purposes?

-derek

Dave Peticolas <dave@krondo.com> writes:

> Starting very soon, the GnuCash development version will undergo
> several major changes. First, the file format will be switched to XML
> instead of a binary format. Second, currencies will no longer be just
> strings, but will instead be objects that contain additional
> information such as domain (ISO currencies, NASDAQ stocks, etc.) and
> rounding information. Third, numbers will be stored in a fixed
> precision format instead of floating-point.
> 
> Also, the register is undergoing major revisions, some of which are
> not visible to the user (they are intended to make the register go
> faster) but will doubtless introduce some glitches that need to be
> worked out. Some of the register changes will be user-visible, such
> as changing the way memos are used with splits and transactions, and
> displaying and editing transactions in a better way (hopefully).
> 
> Finally, the way currencies and accounts are related may be changing
> as well, as per previous discussions on this list.
> 
> All of these changes will make what has been a nominally unstable
> version into a Really Unstable (TM) version. And, while we definitely
> appreciate both your help in finding the inevitable bugs that will be
> created by this process and your feedback for improving the interface,
> we also *strongly* recommend that, at least for a while, you do not
> use the very latest development version to manage real financial data.
> 
> Right before I apply the XML changes, I will tag the tree with
> the tag 'gnucash-pre-xml-patch'. This will let you easily obtain
> a development version that still uses the old binary format.
> 
> thanks,
> dave
> 
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-- 
       Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
       Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
       URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/      PP-ASEL      N1NWH
       warlord@MIT.EDU                        PGP key available