Gnucash Data Access API (was: XML size)

[Dwight Frye]

Derek Atkins writes :
> [ ... snip ... ]               Moreover, the data files SHOULD NOT
> be accessed directly by users or other applications...  They should
> use the Gnucash API.

To date I have had trouble finding any good information about the
Gnucash API which I might use for accessing the data. I want/need
to access the data in a read-only manner (therefore I won't futz
up the data itself) but am reduced to simply snarfing up the XML
to get the job done. That works fine, but is NOT what I would 
consider to be ideal.

I sincerely don't care what the API might be. I just want to find
a usable API which is documented. The comments made by Derek above
give me hope that it _does_ exist, and that someone will point me in
the right direction. :)

How about it?? I need access to the accounts, the category definitions,
and the transactions themselves. Can I do this ... easily? If so, do
please point me at the documentation which tells me how.

TIA! :)

  -- Dwight