Startup time

[Christopher Scully]

I'm still pretty new to GnuCash and this list so maybe I'm missing something that has been covered earlier on this subject.  It seems to be a pretty big usability flaw that the only way to retain any customizations a user makes to a report is to keep it open.  Such a thing takes the nominal (and quite acceptable in my book) start up time and potentially extends it to several minutes.  Users are faced with choosing between "unacceptable" and "even less acceptable" - long start up time or time wasted re-doing report customizations the next time they want to use that customized report.  Kinda like having to choose between being stabbed and being shot.  Is there a reason the reports system is set up this way?

Chris



________________________________
From: Derek Atkins <warlord at MIT.EDU>
To: stepbystepfarm at mtdata.com
Cc: "hasmeta at yahoo.com" <hasmeta at yahoo.com>; gnucash-user at gnucash.org
Sent: Wednesday, August 19, 2009 5:45:22 AM
Subject: Re: Startup time

Mike,

Mike or Penny Novack <stepbystepfarm at mtdata.com> writes:

>>
>>Unfortunately, there are situations where the only way a user can
>>retain a report is to leave it open from session to session. The last
>>I heard, multicolumn reports fall into this category.
>>
>>  
>>
> I'm not completely sure I understand that -- might well be an issue
> about how reports are being USED. Could somebody who does this try to
> explain how/why except during the fairly short time period (hopefully)
> between the first trial run of a report and the final version you
> would want a report to remain open? To me "open" means "could be
> changed" and once the final version of a report exists it shouldn't be
> changed -- just as the books should be considered "closed" for that
> time period. Is this perhaps a difference between those of us who are
> following standard accounting procedures like not making "corrections"
> except by a later correction entry and those who because "well, just
> personal books" follow more lax procedures?

Your definition of "open" is wrong here.  In this case an "open report"
means a report that you don't destroy.  I.e., when you run a report it
opens a report window (tab).  If you do not close the tab when you
exit gnucash, then when you restart gnucash it will re-run the same
report with the same configuration.

Sometimes setting up a report configuration can take a long time, so
being able to retain those settings (report options) are a good thing.

> In my case, once a report is "complete" I export it to a "reports"
> directory. No need for it to exist any longer within GnuCash. If some
> of you are using reports in a different manner please try to explain
> how you are using them so we can give attention to the problem.

I do it because there are some reports I want to see all the time.  For
example, I keep open an Income Statement, Balance Sheet, because I'm
always interested in how I'm doing.  They are always based on "Today" so
I see how they are doing as of when GnuCash starts (or when I reload the
report).  On my consulting company setup I also keep open a Fancy
Invoice with the configuration I want.  This way I don't have to go
reconfigure the standard template fancy invoice report every time I want
to print an invoice.

> Michael

-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
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