Check printing in windows?

John Layman john.layman at laymanandlayman.com
Mon Mar 19 12:15:43 EDT 2012


FOSS, schmoss .  If, in fact, GnuCash aims no higher than to be hobby-grade
software, written for the sole purpose of being a plaything for a small
community of dweebs, then they certainly are entitled to navel-gaze to their
hearts' content.  What you are describing is software whose target customer
is its creator and only its creator.  All others take warning.
 
For the record, I am a developer. And for the record, I am affected by the
defect in question and have implemented a workaround. I have my hands full
running a business that provides management consulting to firms that develop
software that is more than a pastime.  Alas, I am too busy to devote time to
any hobby.  There is much to like about GnuCash, and I am grateful for the
hours the developers devote to it, but spare us the notion that FOSSers are
engaged in an act of heroic altruism. 

-----Original Message-----
From: Dustin Henning [mailto:The00Dustin at gmx.net] 
Sent: Monday, March 19, 2012 11:19 AM
To: john.layman at laymanandlayman.com; 'John Ralls'; 'David T.'
Cc: gnucash-user at gnucash.org
Subject: RE: Check printing in windows?

Maybe you should feel more than a little glum about the operating system
choice you made even more years ago, or maybe you should pay someone to fix
it instead of acting like the developers should treat their FOSS as anything
other than a hobby when they aren't selling support or otherwise making
money on it.  I'm using Windows, and I wouldn't like the workarounds if I
needed to print checks, but this broken record of a conversation is getting
old and reeks of undue feelings of entitlement.  Quite honestly, I'm
impressed the developers here are as nice about it as they are as long as
this thread has been going.  I'd expect to see responses more like the ones
here:
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=569581

Notice that a lot more people are putting up with that bug and it's not
getting fixed.  Note also that you probably don't find that to be a problem
since the bug doesn't affect you.

For the record, I'm not a developer (or I might try to fix both of these
issues since I use Windows), however, since I have nothing to contribute, my
only response on that bug is to confirmed anoter user is encountering the
issue.

-----Original Message-----
From: gnucash-user-bounces+the00dustin=gmx.net at gnucash.org
[mailto:gnucash-user-bounces+the00dustin=gmx.net at gnucash.org] On Behalf Of
John Layman
Sent: Monday, March 19, 2012 11:04
To: 'John Ralls'; 'David T.'
Cc: gnucash-user at gnucash.org
Subject: RE: Check printing in windows?

We are touching on a much more fundamental problem here: the lack of defect
triage based on actual usage and criticality.  Indeed, this mail list seems
to be the only thing providing much in the way of a feedback mechanism, but
the feedback doesn't always seem to register.  I think I am paraphrasing
Gerald Weinberg from a book years ago: "In the absence of a feedback loop,
nothing prevents us from inventing our own reality."  That is
word-to-the-wise it would be well for the GnuCash  developers to ponder. 

I brought up the check printing issue because I think it highlights
GnuCash's Achilles heel: the development culture.   Development proceeds
with little sense of who the 'customer' is, what the usage profile might be,
and the unrealistic notion that it's up to users to invent workarounds for
problems or pitch in on the development effort.   GnuCash faces competition
in the cloud (services like Wave Acounting, FreshBooks and the like) and
there is not a chance in the world it will survive that competition if its
developers indulge more in imaginative navel-gazing about features and the
evolution of the code base than in serving the customer base.  As I read
here the explanations for why the printing defect goes unaddressed, I feel
more than a little glum about the accounting software choice I made a couple
of years back.

-----Original Message-----
From: gnucash-user-bounces+john.layman=laymanandlayman.com at gnucash.org
[mailto:gnucash-user-bounces+john.layman=laymanandlayman.com at gnucash.org] On
Behalf Of John Ralls
Sent: Saturday, March 17, 2012 5:44 PM
To: David T.
Cc: gnucash-user at gnucash.org
Subject: Re: Check printing in windows?


On Mar 17, 2012, at 1:14 PM, David T. wrote:

> The point is that Gnucash will continue to be bundled and distributed 
> with
the Windows printing flaw until someone submits a bugfix patch that can be
tested. So Windows users will continue to know about your fixed file (buried
in the user-list archives), and download and install it before they can
print checks under Windows. 
> 
> 
> Wouldn't it just be great if the fixed file were a part of the
application, and Windows users wouldn't have to do all that?
> 

The fundamental problem for the developers is that none of us can replicate
the problem. It doesn't happen for everyone, so we need to know if this
patch in fact fixes the problem for more people than just dniesby.

Regards,
John Ralls


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