Terminology Clarification requested

[Thomas Bullock]

Hi John,

Thanks for your additional reply and further clarification.  The XML is interesting to see.  It clearly adds depth to the programmer's task that the accountant takes for granted and does not think about it.

Your terms like 'container' and 'structure' provide additional insight.  And Derek's 'object' language provides additional perspective.

Thanks to you both for providing the clarification I was asking for.

Tom

> -----Original Message-----
> From: John Ralls [mailto:jralls at ceridwen.us]
> Sent: Friday, December 10, 2010 12:13 PM
> To: Thomas Bullock
> Cc: gnucash-devel at gnucash.org
> Subject: Re: Terminology Clarification requested
> 
> 
> On Dec 10, 2010, at 4:34 AM, Thomas Bullock wrote:
> 
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> From: John Ralls [mailto:jralls at ceridwen.fremont.ca.us]
> >> Sent: Thursday, December 09, 2010 4:37 PM
> >>
> >> So we have a data structure called a "transaction" that includes a
> >> variable number (but at least 2) of subordinate data structures
> called
> >> "split", along with some date fields, and some "key-value" or KVP
> >> data.
> >
> > I infer then that it does not matter which element of the
> transaction gets labeled 'transaction' with all the parts that it has
> in the code.  You are saying that whichever piece of the 'transaction'
> (as an accountant understands it) becomes the 'transaction' (as a
> programmer understands it) it is treated as the prime element of the
> activity being recorded.  It is prime because it has different coding
> treatment compared to the subordinate parts which have a programming
> status/treatment that identifies them as subordinate.
> 
> A gnucash "transaction" structure is a container for the 2 or more
> splits that make up the accounting transaction, not a special split.
> It has some fields that apply to all of the splits, like the
> description, the date the (accounting) transaction occurred, and the
> date it was posted into Gnucash. In XML it looks like:
> 
> <gnc:transaction version="2.0.0">
>   <trn:id type="guid">503db7a77e6b2e228708ace1e45a2748</trn:id>
>   <trn:currency>
>     <cmdty:space>ISO4217</cmdty:space>
>     <cmdty:id>USD</cmdty:id>
>   </trn:currency>
>   <trn:date-posted>
>     <ts:date>2002-03-14 16:00:00 -0800</ts:date>
>   </trn:date-posted>
>   <trn:date-entered>
>     <ts:date>2003-01-04 05:13:42 -0800</ts:date>
>   </trn:date-entered>
>   <trn:description>Received from American Founders
> Life</trn:description>
>   <trn:splits>
>     <trn:split>
>       <split:id
> type="guid">a81924b4c323bdf92626218cf987b68c</split:id>
>       <split:reconciled-state>y</split:reconciled-state>
>       <split:reconcile-date>
>         <ts:date>2002-09-29 00:11:00 -0700</ts:date>
>       </split:reconcile-date>
>       <split:value>614311/100</split:value>
>       <split:quantity>614311/100</split:quantity>
>       <split:account
> type="guid">73cbee4da2acb9183e83ff639d615ffe</split:account>
>     </trn:split>
>     <trn:split>
>       <split:id
> type="guid">49ab4796dc37c852923cf118c6b457ac</split:id>
>       <split:reconciled-state>n</split:reconciled-state>
>       <split:value>-614311/100</split:value>
>       <split:quantity>-614311/100</split:quantity>
>       <split:account
> type="guid">17b67fb50b4b228f9c2442a6debc271f</split:account>
>     </trn:split>
>   </trn:splits>
> </gnc:transaction>
> 
> Regards,
> John Ralls