The Gnucash database?

[John Pettigrew]

In a previous message, blfs at comcast.net wrote:

> I am really stuck on this point that it cannot import a plain flat text
> file.

What format? As with all other software, GnuCash can only import formats that
it knows about. You've already been told of two (QIF and OFX). If you want it
to support whatever format you're talking about then you're welcome to submit
code to make it do so (the joys of FOSS).

> Further, if Gnucash is a financial program it is a database no matter how
> you want to define database this type of program has to be one.

Not so. As usually understood, "database" actually refers to a database
management system (DBMS). The "database" proper is only the data itself.

Features required in a DBMS (or database, as you use the term) include
nonspecific tools to handle arbitrary data as defined by the user. None of
these applies to GnuCash - it provides specific tools to handle defined data
as defined by good accounting practice.

So, in a very limited sense, GnuCash is a DBMS - but it is a single-purpose,
specialised tool. If you're expecting it to behave like one then you're
probably using the wrong tool. You don't want an accounting package but a
general-purpose DBMS such as MySQL, dBase or similar.

> It is impossible to have a financial program that is not a database.

Yes, insofar as it is a data-handling tool.

No, in that no accounting package on any platform is a generalized DBMS.

John
-- 
John Pettigrew                         Headstrong Games
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