Sync with gnome releases

[Linas Vepstas]

On Thu, Jul 19, 2001 at 12:14:37AM -0700, Michael Fair was heard to remark:
> For instance, will GNUCash allow for a virtually
> infinite number of customized fields that can be
> manipulated?  

Yes, it currently does this, although it can only be associated 
with accounts, transactions and splits. Its in the form of a 
heirarchical key=value tree.  You can get at this stuff directly
from the engine API. You specify the object with its guid.
Logically, you can think of it in the form:

kvp://112233/some/path/to/the/thing

where 112233 is the guid.


> Will GNUCash support multiple data types, or will it
> limit its fields strictly to text.  

kvp supports text strings, int32s, int64s, floats, doubles.
We could add more types, but I don't want a type explosion.

> supporting the MIME storage format might be a slick

That is what got coded into gnucash-1.0, but this was discarded 
for kvp frames.  Better in the long haul.  

> if there were some clear "real-world" uses for such
> support.  FOr instance, I would think that storing
> a scanned image of a bill would be very useful to have
> available and stored/visible inside of GNUCash.  Are

Yes, that's my favorite example.

We currently use kvp to store some reconcile info,  and some
other miscellany.

--linas

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