Reporting system and potentially Python

[Hendrik Boom]

On Fri, 08 Jul 2011 23:33:16 -0400, John Ralls wrote:

> On Jul 8, 2011, at 8:15 PM, Yawar Amin wrote:
> 
>> 
>> If we stick with Scheme, we can take advantage of all the low-level
>> functions that already exist for data extraction and report layout. But
>> we can also move to a declarative model where we can have convention
>> (re-use the report definitions as options) over configuration (build an
>> options dialog box).
>> 
>> Also, is it still true that we have to restart GnuCash every time we
>> change a Scheme report, to see the changes? In any case, we need to
>> make it dead easy for users to import and run and custom reports.
>> 
>> Best,
>> 
>> Yawar
>> 
>> * I find that I’m saying ‘declarative’ a lot nowadays–I think it has to
>> do with the fact that I’m learning Haskell :-)
>> 
>> 
> Fun. Two questions: Can that be easily converted into a string parser so
> that normal users aren't put off by the extra parentheses, and is there
> anything about that that works in Scheme but not in C?

One of the hallmarks of Scheme is its metaprogrammability, for 
applications just like this.  And its simple syntax promotes this.

Not that it isn't  possible to write string parsers and the like, and 
many Scheme systems come with packages for this.  But once you go this 
route, coding tends to become inflexible, like in C.

But as I've said elsewhere, the greatest barrier users encounter in 
trying to use the existing reporting tools isn't that they're written in 
Scheme.  It's that the API they use is undocumented.  That's something I 
hope to do something about.

-- hendrik