1.8.4stable?

[CL Gilbert]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Derek Atkins wrote:
| Hi,
|
| CL Gilbert <Lamont_Gilbert at RigidSoftware.com> writes:
|
|
|>I am just starting with GnuCash.  First install was yesterday.  I had a
|>couple of issue.  I imported from a qif file, but then after I got
|>finished with all the work or importing, it refused to save it, trying
|>to save in some weird directory which was a combination of its hidden
|>directory, and the directory I was telling it to save in.  After 2
|>minutes of me trying different paths to no avail, it finially gave up
|>the ghose.  Guppi crashed along with it.
|
|
| What do you mean that it "refused to save it"?  Can you be more explicit
| about what it was trying to do and what failed?  GnuCash will save some
| ancillary data in $HOME/.gnome and $HOME/.gnucash as well as pulling the
| data file wherever you tell it.
|

Exactly as stated.  I hit save, then it opened the file path dialog.
Then I choose the location, and type the name, then hit OK/Save
whatever, then it complained about the file not existing.  this is
eventhough it should be creating it.  probably it was truly complaining
because the *path* didnt exist.  It was some funky path like
/home/carl/.gnucash/xxx which it should not have been because I was
trying to save to /home/carl/GnuCashData/mydataFile.  somehow it merged
those 2 paths and came up with a garbage path.  I tried to save about 3
times by choosing the path graphically.  Finally I decided to enter it
manually at the bottom of the window.  I typed
/home/carl/GnuCashData/mydatafile thinking that the initial '/' would
clean up this path mess, but to no avail.  I tried saveAs also.

So I said forget it.  Figured that from previous 1 time experience if I
just hit exit, it would ask me for a file name since this file had never
been saved yet.  It did, but this time when I hit enter, something poped
up saying Guppi Crashed in some manner. and that brought the whole thing
down it seemed.


| In what way did "it finally [give] up the ghose[sic]"?  Did it die/crash?

Thats 'ghost' :)

| Did it pop up bug-buddy?  What were you doing when it did this?  Can you
| reproduce the problem?  Can you get a stack trace from the problem?
|

well as I said, I was trying to save.  Didnt have opportunity to enter
anything so I assume bug-buddy didn't show itself, whatever that is.

How does one get a stack trace?

| Unfortunately, "it died" isn't useful.
|

How about, "It died, dead" :D

|
|>So my question is, [since] importing [is] the main instable portion,
can I expect
|>the program to behave itself.  Is it safe to move one of my smaller
|>accounts from quicken to GnuCash?  Does it corrupt any data files?  What
|>should my backup strategy be?
|
|
| Well, gnucash is a large problem-- there are bound to be bugs in it.
| Indeed, there is a list of over 200 bugs and feature requests right
| now.  Version 1.8.4 is pretty stable -- there are few _known_ bugs
| that cause crashes in normal situations.  I've not heard of the
| importer being unstable (although I've heard of it failing to import
| some data correctly).
|

I assume you meant gnucash is a large 'program' :)


| So, safety is in the eye of the beholder.  I'll grant you this:  if you
| lose your data under gnucash the authors will give you triple your money
| back (that you paid for gnucash).  :)
|
| I've never seen 1.8.4 corrupt data files.
|
| As for backups, GnuCash will automatically keep log files and backup
| files for 30 days (and auto-delete them after that).
|
|
|>Quicken just works.  I got the $40 too, so its not a problem upgrading
|>to the new quicken.  But I would prefer to use GnuCash in my transition
|>to Linux [its supposed to be more stable and stuff :)]
|
|
| Quicken also is a paid product, and has a team of a hundred developers
| working on it.  GnuCash is free, open source, and none of the
| developers are paid to work on it, so they have to squeeze time into
| their otherwise busy work schedules to find time to work on gnucash.
|

excuses excuses ;) j/k I like gnucash because eventually I expect to add
a thing or two to it once I get the swing of it.


| IMHO, GnuCash is pretty stable.  I use it for my consulting business.
| Have I seen it crash?  Yes.  Have I been able to reproduce every
| crash?  No.  GnuCash is a complicated piece of software, and I'm sure
| there are some race conditions in there, or someone made a change in
| one place that affected somewhere else.
|
| My best advice to you: "save early, save often".
|
| -derek

Overall I will take that as its safe to go ahead and migrate to gnucash.

- --
Thank you,


CL Gilbert
Free Java interface to Freechess.org
http://www.rigidsoftware.com/Chess/chess.html
"Then said I, Wisdom [is] better than strength: nevertheless the poor
man's wisdom [is] despised, and his words are not heard." Ecclesiastes 9:16

GnuPG Key Fingerprint:
82A6 8893 C2A1 F64E A9AD  19AE 55B2 4CD7 80D2 0A2D
GNU Privacy Guard http://www.gnupg.org
Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) http://web.mit.edu/network/pgp.html, windows
users should try that.
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.2.2 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org

iD8DBQE/DE/zVbJM14DSCi0RAtO2AJ9b6EOLRIPa1+AZWE6ISonNuFdymQCg8j7m
YhSvIobXJsggu4WvGinuQuo=
=/pVS
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----