understanding currency exchange...

Mike Alexander mta at umich.edu
Mon Nov 16 19:52:44 EST 2015


--On November 14, 2015 at 12:37:04 PM -0800 John Ralls 
<jralls at ceridwen.us> wrote:

> Let’s at least make the non-trading account view look like the
> trading account view with each split amount. That will help some with
> the confusion.

You mean always show the amount instead of the value?  I thought about 
doing that when I implemented trading accounts but didn't since one of 
my design criteria was to change the behavior of GnuCash when trading 
accounts were turned off as little as possible.  I changed the display 
with trading accounts on since I though it was very confusing 
otherwise.  Changing it to always show the amount instead of value 
would be a good idea, I think.

> I don’t think it makes sense to show the value without also showing
> the price. I think ideally we’d switch split-view to the layout in
> STOCK accounts any time there’s more than one commodity involved in
> a transaction in ledger view any time there’s a visible transaction
> with multiple commodities).

Having a way to use the stock account layout for any register sounds 
like a great idea.  However doing it based on what's visible may not be 
the best way.  If I understand what you're suggesting then scrolling 
around in a register would make the extra columns appear and disappear 
depending on what is currently visible.  This would be disconcerting.

You could base the decision on whether there is a transaction anywhere 
in the register that uses two or more commodities, but then one 
multi-currency transaction way in the past would change the register 
layout forever, which isn't too good either.

How about just making it an option for the register?  We could an a 
command to the View menu, View->Show Value and Price, (assuming amount 
is always shown).   The default would be based on the current behavior. 
This would seem to give us the most flexible solution.  It would also 
make the exchange rate dialog less important, which wouldn't be a bad 
idea.

              Mike
 



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