[GNC-dev] New Account Hierarchy Setup Assistant Questions

[Geert Janssens]

Op donderdag 13 september 2018 01:03:49 CEST schreef John Ralls:
> > On Sep 12, 2018, at 3:00 PM, David T. via gnucash-devel
> > <gnucash-devel at gnucash.org> wrote:
> That said, I think the only immutable parameter in setting up a new book is
> the root account currency, and that can be derived from the locale.

No, it can't. That would assume the user's locale always reflects the currency 
for which the book should be made. That's a false assumption. So Gnucash can 
make a best guess based on the locale but no more than that. And since it's 
immutable a best guess is not good enough and the user should explicitly be 
asked.

As we have now switched from improving documentation to improving code, I'll 
add my 2c:

A new book setup should ideally ask the user for a jurisdiction and currency 
to start with and use the jurisdiction (or country if we simplify) to choose 
sane defaults. I'm explicitly adding asking for a currency precisely because 
it can't be changed afterwards so it should be set properly right from the 
start. Oh, and I think I even wrote an enhancement request for this:
https://bugs.gnucash.org/show_bug.cgi?id=737489
Note I agree with Wm's feedback on that request and nowadays even have doubts 
whether countries really only always have one currency.

And then for practical purposes:
David,
It's good you ask questions like this while reviewing the documentation. As 
you can see from the strong reactions a fix is never straightforward.

The real question is how you can proceed with your documentation effort. And I 
want to keep the expectations realistic here.

For this particular case for example my proposed way forward is to synthesize 
this discussion in an enhancement request. Hopefully someone will pick it up 
(I know it's unlikely me or John will have time for it in the near future).

If someone picks it up quickly and does it right, a change of this size should 
IMO only be added in gnucash 4.x. So your documentation for 4.x could be 
simplified.

If not, you'll still be stuck with the situation as is, even if most 
acknowledge it can be improved. And then the documentation will have to adapt 
to it or leave a hiatus if you don't wish to document it.