QIF syntax question

[Paul Lussier]

In a message dated: 09 Oct 2001 09:17:27 CDT
Bill Gribble said:

>mmm... interesting. :)  I don't think I would have done that. I like the
>register's shortcuts and autofill; with those, I only have to type a few
>chars to get the whole transaction filled in and I don't really have to
>use the mouse at all.  Oh well, different strokes :)

I thought about that, however, I enter almost everything as a split 
transaction.  I find this to problematic in a GUI environment 
(doesn't matter whether it's GnuCash or Quicken) is that in order to 
go from field to field you end up hitting tab several times, or using 
the mouse to point'n'click.  For account entry, you either need to 
point'n'click to get the drop down box and find the right account, or 
type the same long strings over and over (e.g. For Expenses:Food:Beer 
I have to at least type Ex Fo Be every time).

By setting things up in Emacs, I can do things like create 
abbreviations like 'beer' which auto-expands to Expenses:Food:Beer.
Auto-fill for payees also gets more problematic when you have payee 
names which are not unique for X number of characters, thereby 
requiring that you type X number of characters.  For example,
if I frequent 2 home-brew supply stores, "The Beer And Brew Master"
and "The Beer And Wine Supply Store", I have to at least type in "The 
Beer And X" each time, whereas whith emacs, I need just type in 
"beer" for one and "wine" for the other.

Additionally, creating multiple duplicate transactions which differ 
only in date, check number, or some other minor feature is simply a 
matter of cut'n'paste, or, for *really* frequent transactions, 
mapping the entire list of key strokes to a one key-shortcut then 
changing the one field which needs to be updated.

>The L line for split transactions is ignored by Gnucash.  In Quicken,
>it's always (as far as I can tell) the same as the S line of the first 
>split.  You can put it or not; it doesn't matter to Gnucash either way.

Oh goodie :)  That's what I was hoping you would say :)

Thanks!
-- 

Seeya,
Paul
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