Lots GUI

[Derek Atkins]

linas at linas.org (Linas Vepstas) writes:

> Derek,
> feedback please.

Well, hopefully others have opinions, too ;)

> I think the lots gui takes precedence over book closing, right?  
> (since if one closes the books and lots are messed up, there 
> would be no way to repair them.)

Yea, I think we need to handle this first, then we can finish periods.
I think users are more interested in successfully tracking their
stocks and other things than being able to deal with accounting
periods.

> If you can think of a better way to organize the GUI, let me know.
> 
> --linas
> 
> 
> Basic GUI: 
>    The goal of the basic GUI is to handle most usages of
>    most lots in most places.  There also need to be special-purpose
>    dialogs for specific applications, e.g. stocks, inventory, etc.
> 
>    Shows three areas:  
>    -- list of lots, one of which can be highlighted.
>       Lot names can be edited in-place.

Do lots need to have names, necessarily?

>    -- contents of a single lot (displayed in a narrow,
>       mini-register view, showing only date, memo, quant, 
>       balance)

You might want to also show the value and value-balance...

Also, does this necessarily need to be a register?  Are you planning
to allow users to edit values in place?  Or is this just data for
display?  If it's just for display, we can probably do something like
the 'reconcile window' where you have two lists side-by-side with
various split-parameters displayed.

One of the things on my todo list is break out the "reconcile-list"
widget into a more general 'query-display-list' widget, where you can
supply the list of what data to show, etc.  However, this is a
"read-only" pseudo-register, which might not be what you want...

>    -- list of splits not in any lot.
>       (not clear if screen real-estate allows side-by-side
>       placement, or if this must be above/below. above/below
>       would suck)

I think it depends what you want to show.  If you want to make
it a full register then I don't think we can do it side-by-side.
OTOH, using the query-display-list could allow you to have two
of them side-by-side.

>    Shows various buttons:
>    -- two arrows, which move split into/out of lot.
>       This is a traditional way of moving something from one
>       list to another, but some UI designers argue against this.
>       Is there a better way to move splits into/out-of a lot?

Probably not..  Maybe drag-and-drop, or a combo-box of "open lots"?

>    -- button, labelled 'close lot', which, when pressed, will
>       set lot balance to zero. (by using fifo on the unassigned
>       splits, if possible).

I'm not sure what you mean by this.  What if the quantity-balance
is not zero?

Also, there are cases (in particular for business) when I need to
limit the fifo.  For example, let's say a customer over-pays; the fifo
needs to be limited to that customer's other transactions.  You don't
want to automatically apply customer A's payment to customer B's
outstanding invoice. ;)

However, something that WOULD be cool (and this is certainly one
necessary step) would be a way to make a multi-split txn and apply the
splits to appropriate lots to pay the appropriate invoices:

Bank            $1000
Cust A                  $500
Cust B                  $500

>    -- A field showing realized gain/loss on a closed lot, and
>       a pull-down allowing the gain/loss to be posted to a 
>       specific account.

Ok.

>    -- button or menu item, 'add notes to this lot'.

Ok.

-derek
-- 
       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-IA     N1NWH
       warlord at MIT.EDU                        PGP key available