The Gnucash database?

[Linas Vepstas]

On Mon, Jul 19, 2004 at 05:58:47PM +0000, blfs at comcast.net was heard to remark:
> If you cant query the data easily loaded into the Gnucash program
> without using the Gnucash interface that is a problem.  

That is not true.  Even if you could query the data outside
of gnucash (and you can if you use the sql backend), its gets you 
very little because the data is structured in a variety of complex 
ways.  You would need to know both the accounting principles, and
you'd have to review how gnucash builds its data tables.  

It would be dangerous to your data to have non-gnucash
programs to go in and, for example, modify the SQL tables.
It could possibly lead to bad data corruption.

This is not really a statement about gnucash, but a statement about
structured data in general.  This is what things like DSSSL, XSLT,
and in a way, what XML were invented for to solve.

--linas

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