The Gnucash database?

[Linas Vepstas]

On Sun, Jul 18, 2004 at 10:29:23PM -0500, blfs was heard to remark:
> It would seem to me that the most natural way to write
> Gnucash would be to write it for a flat text file in the Unix
> tradition.  

Not true. Much as I would love to love the unix tradition, 
financial data is highly structured and inter-related.  
Financial data is not just a couple of simple tables of 
rows and columns.  This makes flat-file storage impossible.

> If it is not trivial to translate a flat text file to
> the format required for Gnucash that is a rather serious
> design flaw.  

The problem isn't with gnucash, the problem is that financial 
data in general is not represntable as flat text files.

Its non-trivial to parse a bank statement and recognize which
parts of that statement describe your name, your mailing address, 
your account number, and a list of recent transactions. 


> I can certainly load a flat text file into any
> database I know of with relative ease.

Yes, but you cannot load financial information into a text file
with ease.  This is not a problem with gnucash, this is a
factual statement about the nature of accounting information 
in general.  Its not flat, and you can boil it down into a flat
report only if you work hard at it.

--linas

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