budgeting

Robert Graham Merkel rgmerk@mira.net
Tue, 2 Oct 2001 11:28:58 +1000


On Tue, 02 Oct 2001 11:01:21 Phillip Shelton wrote:
> 
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: nigel_gnucash-devel@unos.net 
> > Maybe what we should really be talking about is the *function* of a
> > budgeting subsystem.
> > 
> > In my mind, the purpose of a budget is to tell me how much money I have
> > left to spend in a given period on a given type of item. That's what I
> > want the budget to do.
> 
> So long as the above is a proper subset of the below and the below does
> not
> demand that you take notice of it, then both parties should be satisfied?
> 
> > I'm not interested in a budget that calculates interest on float,
> > calculates finance charge interest on purchases, tells me which account
> > to put my savings in, or any of that.
> 
> Defining your constraints so that the computer can read and deal with
> then
> is going to be one of the harder first steps.

Sorry to come in a little late into the debate, but this argument needs to
be
taken a little further.  Those constraints need to be specifiable in a way
that's accessible to most gnucash users (and our intended audience is not 
made up exclusively of engineers and programmers).  If you can't come up
with
a simple way to specify constraints (and any other information you need 
to make the budget do its thing), it's not going to get used.

Just something to keep in mind whilst this discussion goes on.

-- 
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Robert Merkel	                           rgmerk@mira.net

Go You Big Red Fire Engine
-- Unknown Audience Member at Adam Hills standup gig
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