Success installing Windows v2.2.1; first impressions (and some bugs)

[Maf. King]

On Tuesday 21 Aug 2007, John Roberts wrote:
> I installed GnuCash 2.2.1 on Windows XP.  Installation process went fine
> (no errors).  I couldn't get version 2.2.0 to launch, but 2.2.1 does work!

Hi!
congrats on a good install...
I've added some more below, I'm not a dev, just a user, so I've only answered 
points I know about...

> -- Tiny nit: Under the reconcile colum "y" seems to mean "reconciled" and
> "n" seems to mean not reconciled and "c" means pending.  A graphic "check"
> symbol would look nicer than "y" and blank would be nicer than "n".
> Clicking on unreconciled transactions toggles them between "n" and "c" but
> not "y" which is different from Quicken.  Also needs pondering.

You are correct - 'y' is applied when you have used the "reconcile" dialogue 
box, 'c' means cleared, and can be manually selected.  anything else 
shows 'n'.  The distinction being that reconcilliation probably only happens 
once a month - when your bank make a statement available.  You can set a 
transaction to "cleared" when you know (eg. ATM balance check, etc) that the 
bank have paid the funds out. So I guess that you have an extra bit of info 
not available in (your description of) quicken.

> -- It's not clear if/how I can make GnuCash prompt for a password when
> changing transactions prior to a certain date (i.e., the date when my books
> were closed).

GC doesn't do any password protection.  See the FAQ at  
http://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/FAQ


> -- The "Save file automatically" dialog is annoying, especially since it
> keeps popping up even when other programs are running.

That is a new addition to the 2.2 series, and can be disabled under 
preferences (somewhere!)

> -- My general status of the program's status is that it's "alpha-test"
> quality.  It might be a good idea to convey this a bit better on the home
> page, as a reviewer might otherwise expect it to be more polished and write
> an (unfairly) negative review as a result.
>

I'd have to disagree with you there, as I have been using only GC for personal 
and business finances for about 5 years now.  Sure there are some bugs and 
niggles, but it isn't alpha quality software by a long way.

Cheers,
Maf.