SQL HOWTO

Linas Vepstas linas at linas.org
Wed Sep 24 02:26:41 CDT 2003


Hi Jon, Hi all,


After a long chat on IRC, I beleive that there is a misunderstanding.

Let me try to clearly state what my intention was with the sql link.

First, I agree that the 'SQL HOWTO' is an insignificant topic whose 
true, long-term importance is low, and would dictate that it 
should be somewhere far down on the documentation page.  It's 
long-term place in life is somewhere in the last half of the 
documentation, some chapter 13 or chater 23 or appendix C.

As such, it does not deserve top billing in the top page menu system.

Also, I agree that the web menus are important web navigation tools,
and shouldn't be trashed or messed up, because web users depend on 
them to find thier way about the site.  The web menus should be
carefully designed, and thier purity and correctness and organization
should be carefully defended. 

Also, I agree that the SQL link, appearing as it does in the top level
menu, it sticks out like a sore thumb.  It doesn't belong there. It
doesn't fit.  

But that is exactly the point.

It is there because it doesn't belong there.  It doesn't fit on purpose.
The reason I put the link there is not because I'm stupid or blind.
I put it there because I wanted to do a bit of subliminal advertising.
Subversive advertising.  Viral buzz.  

Poeple will look at it and say "oh hey, what's this?"  They'll say
"What the heck is SQL?" and they'll click on the link, and they won't
find out.  Because the link doesn't explain SQL.  Because SQL is one
of those famous computer acronyms:  Almost everyone has heard of it, 
almost no one knows what it really is.  A lot of people who don't
know what it is like to pretend that they do know what it is. Because,
hey, they wouldn't want to look stupid to thier freinds.  And you 
know what else? GnuCash has got it.  Anything that has got that famous 
thing (that famous thing your not sure of what it is but you *are* sure
its famous), well, by extension, it's gotta be good.  Have you heard
the news? GnuCash has SQL in it! What's SQL? I dunno, but GnuCash has
it!  (Next LUG meeting, they'll talk about it).

Now, several remarks are in order.  If this sounds like bogus hype,
well, that's because it is.  The GnuCash SQL is one cut above vaporware.
Its there, it works, it just doesn't support the latest features.
But that's not the point.  The point is that we, the GnuCash Project, 
want to advance SQL because the we think it will solve many of our
current technical ills.  Now, we could come out and announce this
aboveboard, fair and square: "Some future version of gnucash,
unspecified, will have some version of SQL on it, when we get around to 
coding it. In the future."  The problem being that not only is it
boring to read an announcement like that, but it is ridiculous. 
"future"? when? "when you get around to it"? ha ha ha what dopes.

So its pointles to make pointless promises that may or may not be kept.
So instead of doing that, I said to myself, "well, we can get more
attention by simply letting people know that its there."  I figured
that we could attract some coders, maybe, some strong db admins, 
other interested parties.  Just by making sure that everyone knows that 
the SQL backend for gnucash exists.  

OK, so how should I let people know?  Well, I could send an email to 
the mailing list, but SQL has been hashed to death already on the
mailing lists.  I could create a front page news item that says 
"hey folks I wanted to alert you to the fact that the SQL backend
exists".  But that's too linear.  Fails to hold interest. Not quite
newsworthy.  Boring.

So instead, I picked the subversive channel.  Just stick it somewhere
where people will stumble on it. "Stumble" literally, as in "trip
over something unexpected in your path".   So I put it where it doesn't
belong. In the doco menus.

This is a grave abuse of the menu system.  How  many such abuses can 
we allow? One, maybe two at any given point in time.  For how long? 
Maybe 2-4 months. After that, it should be retired to is lowly place
somewhere deep in the documentation.

To summarize: this is an advertising ploy, and nothing more. Its a way
of stiring up interest in SQL without being boring and linear about it.


--linas

p.s. Jon, good work on the docs. Also: don't just announce when version
1.8.4 comes out.  Announce whenever you have a new chapter done.  On
the gnucash front page, news section: "Announce chapter XX done, this
chapter covers xyz."

As a group, we are failing to report our activities often enough on 
the gnucash web page.  Any decent sized piece of completed work,
anything with collateral materials, should be announced.  For example, 
someone should take the summarized bugdet discussion, turn it into 
a web page, and announce on the gnucash home page.  

You can even do it with a subliminal, subversive link in the menu
system.  Just remember, no more than 1 or 2 'wrong' menu entries 
at a time.




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