"correcting" transactions

[Mike or Penny Novack]

>
> Open source/free is not a license to providing a bad product.  If 
> nothing else, the documentation should  indicate that "there is no 
> audit trail.  The transactions can be edited.  If you are not 
> comfortable with this, THEN this is not the accounting program for you".
>
> Signed,
>
> The Messenger

Messenger, perhaps an explanation is in order? In addition to not being 
a accountant I take it that you are also not a programmer. On the other 
hand, I spent a few decades in the cypher mines.

Precisely because this is OPEN SOURCE the safeguard you envision for a 
"good product" is impossible. Any of us who were good at programming 
would be able to create our own SLIGHTLY different version of gnucash 
<<change  a couple instructions>> that would bypass the check and use 
that special version to make the unauthorized change. It would not 
require more skill than any ordinarily competent programmer would have.

<< theoretically true even for non-open source. But while you couldn't 
expect anybody intending to cook the books for illegal purposes to 
respect licensing laws the difficulties would be MUCH greater and this 
is true even though not a case of reverse engineering an entire product 
but just finding a very isolated bit of code which you can control 
whether or not entered by whether or not you attempt to change a 
transaction. There are those of of who have the skills and the tools to 
do that sort of thing but I should point out that I'd charge say $100/hr 
for my "consulting time" <<and I mean for legal projects like replacing 
lost source code which I've done in my day>>

Michael