Some thoughts and questions about iso-4217-currencies.*

[Christian Stimming]

Am Dienstag, 20. Oktober 2009 10:31 schrieb Herbert Thoma:
> > b) Until now I added a comment to the replaced currency, but I think at
> > least, I could add a flag expired or still_in_use, what fits better from
> > the logic?
>
> I think we once said (may be in another context) that the default value
> of a boolean option should be FALSE, so I would argue for "expired" on the
> basis that most currencies in the list will be still in use.

Indeed this was a different context: An boolean *gconf key* should be used 
with default FALSE because then it works fine even if gconf cannot find its 
actual defaults. But in all other contexts, we are free to choose whatever 
default fits best.

> > - There was a Euro converter in 1.x, which until now was not ported. But,
> > what is the meaning of src/app-utils/gnc-euro.c? Is it in use? If yes,
> > where? If I understood it right, currencies used there, must still be
> > defined in iso-4217-currencies?
>
> Well I was responsible for this code (gnc-euro.c, not the Euro converter,
> which was done by Christian Stimming). gnc-euro.c does the correct Euro
> conversion with proper rounding as defined by the European Central Bank. I
> was most useful in the time between 1999 and 2001 when you could have
> accounts in EUR and e.g DEM. In the account windows the status line will
> show you the value of a DEM account in EUR and in the account tree window
> you could have a column with the EUR value of your DEM accounts. This
> functionality still works and tracks my stash of retained DEM coins quite
> nicely.

Errr... in other words, today in 2009 the gnc-euro.c code is virtually 
useless. Basically the app-util/gnc-euro.c is a second price data base which 
happens to contain only the officially fixed rates for the euro. IIRC it was 
introduced at a time when the real price data base didn't yet work well 
enough. Now that the normal price data base works fine, it can and probably 
should be removed rather soon. Or did I miss something here?

Regards,

Christian