Gnucash versions

[Geert Janssens]

On vrijdag 7 oktober 2011, David Ryder wrote:
> On 07/10/11 09:22, Geert Janssens wrote:
> > On vrijdag 7 oktober 2011, David Ryder wrote:
> >> On 06/10/11 15:09, John Ralls wrote:
> >>> On Oct 6, 2011, at 5:27 AM, David Ryder wrote:
> >>>> Thanks for this insight.
> >>>> 
> >>>> Does this mean that if we don't convert to sql but stay in XML format,
> >>>> our books are interchangeable with 2.2.9-5? If so, it gives us newbies
> >>>> a 'backup' if we have 2.2.9-5 on another machine.
> >>>> 
> >>>> David
> >>>> 
> >>>> On 06/10/11 09:25, gnucash-user-request at gnucash.org wrote:
> >>>>> I'll just note that unless you explicitly installed the lib-dbi
> >>>>> backend for a supported database package (mysql, sqlite,
> >>>>> postgresql), created a database in the database engine, and then
> >>>>> saved your gnucash data in the database format, then you are
> >>>>> probably still using the default XML data format. And that is
> >>>>> probably just as well. At this time, there is little gained by
> >>>>> converting over to the SQL version; several discussions over the
> >>>>> last year or so have underscored this.
> >>> 
> >>> When you reply to a message in a digest, please change the subject line
> >>> to match the one from the particular message you're responding to.
> >>> 
> >>> Yes, that's correct: The XML files interoperate with Gnucash-2.2.9.
> >>> 
> >>> Regards,
> >>> John Ralls
> >> 
> >> Apologies for the subject error.
> >> 
> >> Thank you for the lib-dbi info.
> >> My (original) question then is extended to, what are the benefits of
> >> converting to a sql database?
> > 
> > Using an sql database means that all your edits are immediately saved,
> > resulting in a reduced risk of data loss. That is currently the only
> > benefit.
> > 
> > The sql data storage of GnuCash currently isn't a clean relational
> > database (yet) and won't increase performance yet either. Those may
> > change in the future. What we have now is a first step that paves the
> > way to much stronger database support in later releases.
> > 
> > Geert
> 
> Thank you.
> Immediately saving edits can have drawbacks, for example when trying to
> reconcile a 'messy' account. I have found it often better to d edits
> without saving until I know they are correct. JMO
Agreed, but this plays on another level. Saving immediately doesn't mean each 
character you type is stored in the database immediately. The reconcile 
function would be a good example: only if the reconcile is successful should 
the change be recorded in the database. The contrast with the xml file is that 
depending on your settings, it could still take more time before the changes 
get saved (perhaps together with some other actions like editing some 
transactions). If you have the bad luck of experiencing a crash between the 
successful difficult reconcile and the next save, you have to start over. That 
can be avoided with immediate saves.

> Hopefully, acknowledging with much appreciation, the effort of the
> volunteers, one day gnucash can have a proper share portfolio manager in
> it (like Australia's STEX) - the present way of keeping track of shares
> in gnucash is, no dis-respect intended, too cumbersome and limited.
> 
Portfolio is not my area so I can't comment much. But if you have a good idea 
of what this should be, you could write a (preferably detailed) proposal for 
it in either our bug tracker [1] or on uservoice [2].

> Off-topic (?) The instructions I had for installing gnucash 2.4.7 on
> Ubuntu 10.04/10.10 made no mention of lib-dbi.
Where did you get your instructions from ?

Geert


[1] http://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Bugzilla
[2] https://gnucash.uservoice.com/