Qif import and memos

[David Hampton]

On Wed, 2007-02-14 at 11:22 -0600, Jeff Carneal wrote:
> On Feb 14, 2007, at 9:28 AM, Derek Atkins wrote:
> 
> > Jeff Carneal <jeff-ml at soldmy.net> writes:
> >
> >> Wouldn't it follow to simply pull the "far" memo just as the "far"
> >> account is displayed when in basic transaction mode?  If that's what
> >> is done for the far account, how/why would the algorithm be
> >> materially different for the memo field?  I'm not saying there is no
> >> reason, I simply do not yet see it.
> >
> > Not particularly, because except for the "transfer account",  
> > everything
> > displayed is for the near split and/or transaction!
> 
> Right.  But how does this make what I'm proposing a Bad Thing?   

Because its confusing.  If I see a text note in a basic transaction, how
do I know if that note applies to the transaction as a whole or only to
a specific split in the transaction?  With your proposed change I can't,
because what the register displays will change on a transaction by
transaction basis.  There is no consistent, easily understood rule like
there is today, where the register in basic mode always displays the
comment associated with the overall transaction.  With your changes,
what happens when I edit the text I'm seeing?  Where does the result go?
Is the changed text always applied to the overall transaction, or is it
maybe applied to an individual split?  I frequently have split
transactions where there is no overall transaction comment, but each
individual split is commented.

I think you're proposing a workaround to clean up long after the problem
has occurred.  What you really want is for the QIF importer to promote
comments from a individual split to the transaction as a whole.  If
standard "Quicken" (or whatever program is writing QIF files) behavior
is to only label a single split with a comment, or to label both splits
of a transaction with the same comment, then it makes sense to me that
that comment should be promoted.  If the splits of a transaction in a
QIF file have different comments the it would not be possible to promote
the comment.

David