Giving up on Gnucash

[Rod Engelsman]

Rich Shepard wrote:

> On Fri, 22 Apr 2005, Rod Engelsman wrote:
> 
>> And I'm dead serious about the need for someone to take this and fork it
>> into a product that's more friendly for home users migrating from 
>> Quicken,
>> Money, etc. The UI paradigm is squarely aimed at accountants and that's
>> fine, although the strict double-entry, debit & credit, scheme is little
>> more than an unneccessary anachronism.
> 
> 
>   I beg to differ. I used MoneyCounts on DOS from 1984-1997 (when I 
> migrated
> from DOS to linux), and it was double entry from the beginning. It takes a
> little thought to understand that each entry in the check register 
> represents
> a specific source of income or expense and this representation is all 
> that a
> double-entry system does. If you don't make notes in your paper checkbook
> register then you have no idea why you wrote a check to the hardware store
> (for example) last year.

That's not what I'm talking about. Money, Quicken, and all the rest use 
double-entry in that respect. And I have done the same for many years. 
What I'm referring to specifically is the debit/credit, 
left-column/right-column business.

THAT in particular is the anachronistic part. It was invented by smart 
people so that they could hire less-smart people to do their 
bookkeeping. It accomplishes several things: It eliminates subtraction; 
all amounts are expressed in positive numbers, thus eliminating a source 
of errors (most people are better at addition than subtraction). It puts 
forth a simple rule; every entry in a left column must be balanced by an 
entry in a right column -- somewhere, thus eliminating errors caused by 
mis-interpreting the "sense" of an account (asset vs. liability, or 
expense vs. income).


> 
>   Of course, there are people who find a hand crank on automobile 
> windows to
> be a bother, too. They prefer to push a button and let the motor do the 
> work.
> Different strokes for different folks. Shrug.

Yeah. I like my power windows. A lot safer than trying to roll up the 
passenger side window manually when you're driving alone.


> 
>> The debit/credit, left column/right column business is simply a
>> computational device intended to minimize mistakes by clerks. My computer
>> isn't prone to math mistakes so it isn't needed.
> 
> 
>   No, it's the practice of accountants who've used it for at least a couple
> of centuries. Long before computers were in every home. Take a look at old
> company ledgers (summary accounts) and journals (daily transaction records)
> and see if they're just a list of numbers.

What did I just say? It's a computational device from before the era of 
computers. It was specifically set forth as a (relatively) simple set of 
rules to minimize error and make it likely to catch any errors that 
slipped through.


> 
>> So, thanks, but see you later. Take care and I wish you the best.
> 
> 
>   I'm really sorry you're so closed-minded to learning something new. 


That would explain why at the age of 44 I'm in a Master's degree program 
to embark on a second career. Honor Society and Chancelor's list, FWIW. 
I'm not an idiot and I'm not closed-minded. And I am of the opinion that 
Microsoft sucks as a corporate citizen. Which is why I am giving Linux a 
fair evaluation.

 > Given
 > that, however, you're much better off under the total care control of
 > Microsoft. No thinking required.

Stuff it. I have given it thought. I actually researched double-entry 
accounting, learned something of the history, and have even read the 
critiques concerning the mechanical parts of it by learned men. The 
basic principles behind it -- matching inflows with sources and outflows 
with expenses -- is perfectly implemented in more friendly and intuitive 
software that doesn't presume to require you to learn a different 
vocabulary for the exact same thing, or confuse you by presenting you a 
checkbook register that looks *almost* the same as the paper one 
supplied by the bank, but with the critical deposit and withdrawal 
columns interchanged -- for absolutely *NO* reason.

Why the hell can't someone say, "Well, I've tried it, it's a decent 
piece of work, but I can't really like it. Here's why," without getting 
insults?

Frankly, your last comments lead me to believe that you're a pompous ass.

Rod