Tracking Money in Savings Account

[Ian X Waddington]

Derek

"the developers are extremely time-constrained as it is and we have WAY too
many open bugs and feature requests as-is"

Given the above is there a list of preferred feature requests that are
queuing to get built? If so, how do the users influence the list? It would
help people like me see what was coming and when best to be patient and
where best to invest energy supporting, lobbying, testing etc.

As "new blood" I'd like to get some indication that there are developers
willing to add 'personal finance manager' type functionality to the product,
for example TAGS or future forecasting, before investing time in writing
specs.  I do not wish to appear in anyway ungrateful, I have free access to
a really fantastic product supported by people who are clearly dedicated but
if the majority of those making the decisions and really in control are
going in a particular direction there is little point me or others like me
trying to change things.

Please be reassured that my intentions are positive and not meant in anyway
as a criticism; I'd just like to know whether I'm pushing at an open door or
running head first at a brick wall.

Regards

Ian

-----Original Message-----
From: Derek Atkins [mailto:derek at ihtfp.com] 
Sent: 19 December 2010 14:09
To: Daniel Trezub
Cc: Ian Waddington; stepbystepfarm at mtdata.com; Dennis Brakhane;
warlord at mit.edu; Gnucash User; derek at ihtfp.com; Wayne Bird
Subject: Re: Tracking Money in Savings Account

On Sun, December 19, 2010 12:07 am, Daniel Trezub wrote:
> I need it/use it as personal finance manager.
>
> BUT, as I see in the splash screen every time I start GC, it's a "Free 
> Accountant Software". And by what I've seen here in the list, I tend 
> to think the developers see it as an accountant software, too.

Actually, it says "Free AccountING Software" (emphasis mine).

GnuCash is NOT a finance manager.  Then again, neither was Quicken, and I'm
pretty sure MS Money isn't, either.

I cannot answer for anyone else, but I still agree with what it says in the
splash screen; GnuCash is Accounting Software.  You can fit accounting
software into lots of holes, but in the end it requires the end user to know
how to twist the peg.

GnuCash is not all things to all users, and frankly I don't expect it to be
all things to all users.

I realize this is the user list and not the devel list, but I'll repeat
again here:  if you think something is missing you are encouraged to do
something about it.  If you don't know how to program at all then you're
welcome to test, report bugs, and write up functional specifications for
missing features. If it's a report that's missing, then draw up an example
of how the report should look and write up a document for how the report
should work.  If you're talking about other features, run the glade
application to design UIs and show how users would enter in the new data. 
If you DO know how to program (even if you don't know C or Scheme, well, you
should learn them!) you're welcome to send it patches to fix issues that you
have.

The onus is on YOU, the community at large, to make GnuCash better and fit
your needs.  Anyone can become a "developer".  There is not some magic pixie
dust that makes those of us who commit code to subversion any smarter than
those of you who run the program.

I know that when new blood comes asking "what can I do", it's much easier to
point them to a fully thought out feature request than a bug report "it
doesn't work".  Granted, just doing all that work doesn't mean the feature
will be in the next release; the developers are extremely time-constrained
as it is and we have WAY too many open bugs and feature requests as-is. 
So it's a question of time, value, desire, and itch.

What's your itch?  And how can you scratch it?  (productively)

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-derek