r19325 - gnucash/trunk/src/report/standard-reports - Bug #556713 - inconsistency in report options, partial fix

[Christian Stimming]

Am Friday 09 July 2010 schrieb Derek Atkins:
> > I ran these tests. The reports fail fairly gracefully. Every option for
> > which I changed the name is reset to it's default value after the
> > change. 
> > 
> > So two things have to be decided on here:
> > 1. Are these report option resets acceptable ? Personally, I think now is
> > better than in a future maintenance release.
> 
> Agreed.

I agree as well.

> > 2. I had attached a patch with some more option consistency fixes to
> > http://svn.gnucash.org/trac/ticket/556713, which I was keeping for
> > after the string freeze because they were changing strings. This now
> > becomes a very debatable patch: I don't think these changes should be
> > introduced in a maintenance release. I don't think our users would
> > like to see their carefully customized reports being reset in a stable
> > series. Introducing the changes now would break string freeze. A third
> > option would be to wait for 2.6 with these changes.
> 
> I agree.  Either the reset happens now (breaking the string freeze) or
> it waits until 2.5/2.6.  I don't have a strong opinion about it
> personally -- you'll have to ask the translators if they mind.  If it's
> only adding one or two strings then I think it's probably okay.

I think the benefit of changing it now is significant enough to accept this 
string freeze exception. I think I agree with you here that the patches should 
go in rather sooner than later.

> > Lastly, suppose we keep the changes I did now, where should the report
> > options reset effect be documented ? In the release notes ? The FAQ ?
> > Somewhere else ?
> 
> All of the above?  Certainly in the release notes.  Probably in the FAQ
> or Wiki.

FAQ, yes, and also release notes, but be aware that only a small minority of 
the concerned users will actually read the release notes, so I wouldn't expect 
too much of that. But those who wonder will probably look into the FAQ, so it 
should be there as well.

Regards,

Christian