Text field alignments

[Derek Atkins]

Don,

Quoting Donald Allen <donaldcallen at gmail.com>:

[snip]
> Thanks. This is similar to arguments that have been made before and
> I've indicated how and why I disagree with it (at least for me), so I
> won't repeat.
>
> I really think the best solution is to fix the current non-uniformity
> of the justification, which I think we can all agree is a mistake,
> and to add an option that allows the user to choose from
> left-justified, right-justified, and the centered ellipsis idea
> proposed earlier. I don't much care what the default is, so long as I
> can set the option and forget it.
>
> The reason I think the option approach is best is that we have
> different styles of account naming in the Gnucash community and one
> size doesn't fit all in this case, as I think is clear from this
> discussion. I don't think your way of doing things is *wrong* in any
> absolute sense, especially if it works well for you. But it's not
> suitable for the way I use Gnucash and I'd like to have the option of
> setting it up the way it works best for me. And there's ample
> precedent among the already-existing Gnucash options (e.g., I run it
> with "formal accounting labels" enabled, obviously I prefer it that
> way, but I don't think it would be hard to find people who would be
> driven to distraction by that).

Could you perchance provide some examples of some full account
names in your datafile?  In particular, could you provide full
examples of accounts that you feel would not work in a right
justification but would work with a left justification?  I'm asking
because honestly I just can't think of any at all.

For example, I have accounts like:

Assets:Current Assets:LJ&A:Aggressive Growth Portfolio:DFA Intl Small 
Cap Value
Assets:Current Assets:LJ&A:DFA Intl Small Cap Value

In a left-justified view I see this for both of these accounts:
   Assets:Current Assets:LJ&

However in a right-justified view I see:
   A:DFA Intl Small Cap Value
or
   io:DFA Intl Small Cap Value

I also have accounts like:

Assets:Current Assets:MIT FCU:Checking
Assets:Current Assets:MIT FCU:Savings
Assets:Current Assets:NetBank:Checking
Assets:Current Assets:NetBank:Savings

Left-justified I see:
  Assets:Current Assets:MIT
or
  Assets:Current Assets:Net

So I know what financial institution but not which account.
Right justified I see:
  t Assets:MIT FCU:Checking
or
  t Assets:NetBank:Checking

In all these cases the right-justified name gives me all the info I need
provided I know (or can assume) the major branch of the tree that I'm using.

So, Don, I'm trying to understand your use case and how left-justification
would help you in your system?

> /Don

Thanks!

-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