[GNC-dev] Python: About Wrapping SWIG Objects (GncNumeric)

[cicko]

Christoph Holtermann wrote
> I'm willing to now and then do something for the python bindings. I 
> don't feel like an expert. But surely I'd like to talk and think things
> through 
> about them. Maybe someone is interested. I saw that there were some people 
> asking questions about the bindings on this list. Maybe they don't commit
> but 
> still work with the bindings. So my question remains and maybe someone has
> an 
> idea.

Christoph,

I, for example, am quite interested in accessing GnuCash via Python. So, on
first sight, Python bindings seem an interesting option.
In practice, though, I did not find much motivation to spend time on it,
unfortunately. The main reason for that is that I need my (Python) code to
run on Windows, Linux, and Android. And to run equally well.
Since the bindings are available only on Linux, that's a very limiting
factor. So I've limited my work to only reading the GnuCash data. Additional
functionality is dispersed across various small projects that keep extra
information in their own databases (i.e. Asset Allocation). This works well
on Android and I can get my Portfolio Value report or Security Analysis by
running a Python script on my phone (sounds weird, I know).
To run on all platforms I'm using Sebastien's Piecash library.
Additional step would be to add some sort of (native) GUI on all the
platforms. I've already looked into that a bit, but nothing tickles my fancy
yet.

Having the ability to write data to GnuCash would be fantastic. However, I
don't think it's going to happen on multiple platforms any time soon.
Naturally, it is possible to write to GnuCash database but that is not
exactly the same as using GnuCash's business logic.

One thing I would like to improve on next is the process of getting the
transactions from the mobile app (MoneyManagerEx for Android) into GnuCash.
Python bindings would be perfect for that, to avoid lengthy process of .qif
import. I could adapt the Android app to provide GnuCash-specific export
file, for example. But if this would work only on Linux, it would be a very
small return on the investment of time and effort. 



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