Qif import and memos

[Terry Therneau]

  Lest the discussion get acrimonious:

   I started with a question of "qif import seems to be losing the memo
line".  It is now clear that instead, it puts it in a place I didn't 
expect.  Discussion of the pros and cons of the second point are on a
completely different level than the first one.   I was very unhappy at
the thought of losing my comments, displaying them in a non-optimal way
is only a nuisance, in addition to the highly subjective aspects of
my definition of "optimal".
   So to start with, my thanks to various respondents for clarifying this.

>  I dont think it's actually obvious, or it would have been done that
> way in the first place.
Ouch.

>> I deduce from this that all transactions are a list of transfers, a 
>> split just
>> means that the number of lines >1.  A note is attached to the transaction,
>> and the memo to each transfer?

>Nope, Try again.  A transaction is a list of Splits, each split is a
>debit or credit to/from a particular account.  The sum of all splits
>must balance to 0.  So each balanced transaction must have at least
>two splits.   What most people think of as a "Split Transaction"
>means a transaction with at least THREE splits.

Ok, let me try again.  
  1. Is it correct that the "note" field is tied to the transaction
and the "memo" to the splits?

  2. For a simple transaction, for example I wrote a check to Ace
Hardware for a trash can, there would normally be just a single bit
of ancillary info, i.e. "trash can".  Is it assumed that the usual user
will place this in the note field, or as a memo attached to one of the
splits?  

 3. In Quicken (or at least my ancient version), a split transaction has
ancillary info attached to each of the expense accounts, but not to the
parent account part of the transaction.  On import, what, if anything,
is set as the memo field for the parent account?  (Hopefully nothing,
but I saw some odditied in a 1.8 import).

	Terry T.

Hardware for a rake