Reporting system and potentially Python

[Mike Evans]

On Tue, 15 Nov 2011 13:30:37 +0000 (UTC)
Hendrik Boom <hendrik at topoi.pooq.com> wrote:

> 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


I believe Yawar has made a start on documenting the API at
http://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/User:Yawaramin