Drop the language debate

[Chris Shoemaker]

On Wed, Dec 26, 2007 at 08:04:06AM -0500, Donald Allen wrote:
> On Dec 26, 2007 6:49 AM, Keith A. Milner <kamilner at superlative.org> wrote:
> > On Tuesday 25 December 2007 17:49:01 Dale Alspach wrote:
> > > This is the gnucash users list. A debate over programming languages belongs
> > > elsewhere.
> > >
> >
> > I'm tempted to agree. However, this debate started as a question about the
> > usability of reports and the ability to customise them, which is a valid user
> > issue.
> >
> > Whilst I think there's been a bit too much "language xxx is better than
> > language yyy because...", I think the discussion is important.
> >
> > It might be useful if some more "normal" users got involved in the debate, as
> > the programmers amongst us tend to skew the discussion towards technology.
> 
> I agree with you that the discussion is important, and it *is* about
> how to improve a key part of gnucash, currently broken in my view.
> 
> I also must say I object to the tone of Dale Alspach's message --
> telling, rather than asking.

Object all you want, but kindly do it off-list.  

If anyone wants to further discuss the relative merits of various
programming languages FOR REPORTS IN GNUCASH, please start a new
thread on gnucash-devel.  And be prepared to address the software
engineering issues that really matter, like the maturity and
availability of the specific templating libraries available in each
library, any impedance-mismatch issues with interfacing with the C
API, etc.

In general, if actually implementing the reporting system in the new
language is beyond your skills, your opinion regarding language
selection isn't likely to carry much weight with whoever actually does
it.

-chris