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

Andrew Duggan cmkrnl at speakeasy.net
Fri Feb 3 13:29:52 EST 2006


 From: Derek Atkins [mailto:warlord at MIT.EDU]
> 
>    Would you rather be able to always read a data file created in a new
>    version of gnucash using an older version of gnucash, where saving that
>    data file will lose data when you re-open it in the new version, or would
>    you rather the older version of gnucash fail to load the data when it
>    sees data it doesn't understand in order to prevent accidental data loss?
> 
> -derek

Personally, I would recommend that you just warn the user on opening the file that if they save it, they *will* lose data related to features from all newer versions. Conversely you could warn them at the save time, and have the default answer to the dialog be "Cancel", and maybe an option to "save as" instead? Maybe warn at both open and save time? That I guess doesn't solve the 1.8 -> 2.0 problem, but the concept makes the users responsible for their own choices. At the end of the day it is impossible to "out-smart" via programming a user bent on being stupid or foolish or who is just naive. Even with that you can't *make* users read warning dialogs.

Just a couple of unsolicited cents.

Andrew

 





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