Newbie various

[Michael Hall]

Quoting Derek Atkins <warlord at MIT.EDU>:

> GnuCash is flexible, but as a result not customized to
> any particular area.  The flexibility allows you to set it up, but
> that means you need some guidelines in HOW to set it up.
> 
> A programmer could add a bunch of setup druids (hint hint) to help
> initialize the system for various locales.  Such a code donation would
> be happily accepted.


GnuCash configuration and data is stored as XML, correct? (I know about the
Postgres multi-user backend).

Is both configuration and data in the same file? (looks like it)

I have never touched GUI programming (web only), but am reasonably competent
with XML/XSLT.

To what extent could GnuCash be localised just by editing/substituting XML files
(whether by hand, shell script, druid, etc)? For example, to create something as
simple as a set of default business accounts more attuned to Australian
circumstances. This could include:

- remove Americanisms (I'm not anti-American, we just use different names for
some things)
- remove lots of irrelevant categories (eg in the taxes section)
- add GST accounts

This is small stuff, I know, but it might improve the average non-geekish user's
initial impressions and get them under way 5 minutes earlier!

I suppose I'm volunteering for something along these lines. I'd also be
interested in finding out what is involved in updating the PostgreSQL backend. 

Frankly, I'm interested in all Linux accounting solutions because I believe that
the "killer app" that ushers Linux in in a big way on the small business desktop
will be a robust, intuitive accounting package that just works (and, in
Australia, does GST out of the box). Especially now that the other big ones are
out of the way (browser, email, office suite). 

Mick

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Michael Hall
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