IRC discussion on i18n, xml/utf8, and 1.8->2.0 data migration issues

[Dan Widyono]

> I completely disagree.  As soon as you save off the data file you've
> now lost data.  I do agree that it shouldn't "bomb", but I do not believe
> that it should read the data.  IMNSHO It should say "you need a newer
> version of GnuCash to read this file" and just refuse to open it.

IMHO (as a user) I agree with Derek (quoted above) on this, and apparently so
does the user interface group of OO.org (perhaps modeled after the usability
studies of Microsoft).  If you know you're going back to GC1.8 after using
GC2.0, you would Save As... in GC2.0 with a file format of "GnuCash 1.8".
Then it would warn you that "You will lose some information (such as
budgeting, etc.), would you like to proceed?"

That way the older versions continue to read their own file format *only*,
while the newer versions understand both file formats and give you the
ability to save in the older format with a warning.

Cheers,
Dan W.