Default save-as file format: Rather stick to XML?

[Christian Stimming]

Am Sonntag, 1. November 2009 schrieb Phil Longstaff:
> > Hence, I propose to stick to "XML file" as default at least on Win32 but
> > probably on all platforms anyway.
> 
> I agree with you that if 2.4 were to be released today, the sql backend is
>  not in good enough shape to be the default.  I think there needs to be
>  some discussion of when we consider 2.4 ready to release.

Indeed. And probably we shouldn't plan for features which need plenty of 
additional work, but instead rather focus on those which are already finished 
and need only the bugfixing work until they are stable enough.

>  Originally, I
>  had hoped for sql backend and webkit for report display.  Both are having
>  problems, and the webkit issues are not really in our control.  I'm
>  disappointed in it and think we may need to revert to gtkhtml until
>  webkit-gtk matures.
> 
> One thing that the 2.3.X series has done is flush out some of the sql
>  backend problems.  I don't think that would have happened if it had just
>  stayed on trunk, limited to those who build trunk themselves.

Yes, I agree. I never questioned the decision to have the sql backend 
available in the released versions - this is what we have planned for and what 
has been done.

>  I think the
>  gnucash website does need some work to make the latest stable version
>  (2.2.9) *much* more visible vs the unstable releases.
> 
> I'm not yet ready to switch back to the XML backend but I won't rule that
>  out.

What do you mean by "switch back to XML"? I'm not talking about disabling 
anything, or automatically changing any file from one format to another. 

What I'm talking about is the *default* for when people use the "Save-As" 
dialog, which implicitly also concerns everyone who creates a new data file. 
What I'm proposing is for *this* cases to have XML selected as default, and 
have sqlite available as another option, but not the other way round as it is 
right now.

Note that talking about "SQL" in the context of our financial software might 
also have the unintended side-effect that users implicitly expect full multi-
user database capabilities, which we are unable to deliver right now and also 
in the short and medium-term future. Hence, even if we promote the sqlite 
and/or pg backends more than we currently do, we must be cautious not to raise 
the expectation of a multi-user capable system. Instead, gnucash is and (in 
the medium-term future) will be a single-user system which incidentally can 
save its data in several formats, but that's it. An XML file doesn't leave any 
doubt about this scope, but anything sql-related does. IMHO that's another 
(although weak) reason to stick to the XML file format as *default* - but the 
others can and should be offered as options.

Regards,

Christian