Vanishing transactions and log file

[Donald Allen]

On Wed, Apr 2, 2008 at 10:33 AM, Derek Atkins <warlord at mit.edu> wrote:
> "Donald Allen" <donaldcallen at gmail.com> writes:
>
>  > On Tue, Apr 1, 2008 at 10:51 AM, Derek Atkins <warlord at mit.edu> wrote:
>  >> "Donald Allen" <donaldcallen at gmail.com> writes:
>  >>
>  >>
>  >> > Thinking about this some more, one *could* imagine the atomic particle
>  >>  > of the basic register being a transaction, not a split. Then, in a
>  >>  > case like this, you would see one entry, not two. I think for most
>  >>  > people (myself initially, and probably for Ross) this would be less
>  >>  > confusing. But it would also be less informative, as I mentioned in my
>  >>  > previous message, because without expanding the splits, you would not
>  >>  > know that there were two splits involving the account (for which
>  >>  > you've displayed the basic register). I prefer it as it is, having
>  >>  > figured it out after my first "what's this?" reaction and come to
>  >>  > realize that it makes sense.
>  >>
>  >>  True, one COULD imagine this, but then you have a problem.  When
>  >>  displaying/editing the split-specific data, which split's data do you
>  >>  show/edit?
>  >
>  > I'm not sure what you mean here, but I'll answer what I think you
>  > mean: you show all the splits for the transaction. What I have in mind
>  > is simple -- it's the transaction journal with the ability to collapse
>
>  Don, you clearly didn't follow the conversion.  The question is
>  when you have a transaction with multiple splits into the current
>  account but you want that collapsed into a single line, how do you
>  display it?  You're combining the split information from multiple
>  splits into a single line (which only contains enough information
>  for the information from ONE split).   So how do you do that?

This discussion is a bit odd from one standpoint, since we're
discussing the bugs in my speculation about doing something that I
don't advocate. But it is useful up to a point, because it's revealing
some of the issues in designing this stuff.

To answer your question ("so how do you do that?"): my thought was
that you use the transaction line as displayed by the current
transaction journal mode.

 And
>  then what happens when you try to edit it?

Auto-expand the splits when you select the transaction and edit as you
would the transaction journal now?

>
>
>  > the splits so just the transaction header shows (or maybe it comes up
>  > that way and you expand with the split button). But, as I've said
>  > previously, collapsed mode doesn't convey that there are multiple
>  > splits (typically two for stock closing transactions) involving the
>  > account in question.
>
>  Right.  It doesn't convey that information, which is why it's even
>  MORE confusing.
>
>
>  >  Yes, it might sound nice to be able to combine the values
>  >>  into a single line, but what do you do if you try to change the
>  >>  number?
>  >
>  > Distribute the new number to the splits in the same proportion they
>  > were initially?
>
>  Ummm......  That doesn't always work.  In particular it doesn't work
>  in the case of a Cap Gains split because they aren't really a
>  proportion.

Because shares*price != debit or credit? But this wouldn't be an issue
if you did the auto-expand thing I suggested above.

So maybe what I'm suggesting is a fourth view mode -- auto-split
transaction journal (that would come up with all transactions
initially collapsed and auto-split on selection). I'm not making any
real attempt to think this stuff through, as one would need to if this
were a serious candidate for implementation, since I'm happy with
things as they are in register-display land. I think there are other
areas of gnucash that need help more than this, particularly the
reports, as we've discussed in the past.

/Don





>
>
>
>  -derek
>  --
>        Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
>        Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
>        URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/    PP-ASEL-IA     N1NWH
>        warlord at MIT.EDU                        PGP key available
>