Gnucash 1.8.2 first impressions

[Salkind, Lou]

I've been following gnucash for a while, but have never used it (other
than to play with it for a few minutes every year or so to see what it's
current capabilities are).  With the recent 1.8 release, I decided to
look again, so I imported a Quicken file into gnucash 1.8.2 running on
RedHat 8.0 (I just took the binary rpms from the download site).  

Here are some of the problems/questions I had in my first session:

A) The QIF importer doesn't set a current price for various stocks,
funds and other securities.  I had to set it by hand.  I believe the
information was in the QIF file, but even if not, perhaps it can be
guessed at from the last transaction?

B) On the register for each of those stock and funds, the total number
of shares and the current value are correct (this is reported just below
the menu bar and icons, as well as on the account screen).  Yet when I
run the Account Summary report (or Book Value, etc.), the value of the
assets in these accounts is quite different.

C) Minor user interface nits:  
	- The most significant digit in the balance of the register is
shaved off (pixel calculation doesn't seem correct)
	- No matter how much I resize the register window, I can't get
rid of the horizontal scroll bar
	- On the account editing window, the account type and parent
account panel is just one line of text high, which makes it difficult to
scroll
Does this have something to do with gnome 2.0?

D) If you are doing a balance sheet report, what value do you use for
the set of assets?  Is it the book value or the market value?  If it is
the market value, then you need another balancing entry for the
unrealized profits.  (This is a theoretical question, because I can't
get any meaningful value right now.)

E) Is there lot identification anywhere?  I didn't see it.

I should say the program has come a long way in the last couple of years
and has a lot of potential.