trading account, currency exchange, and cash flow - bug or misunderstanding?

[gnucash.133518b at telus.net]

On 2014-05-13 8:55 PM, Mike Alexander wrote:
> I committed a change tonight that makes the cash flow report ignore
> trading accounts.  This makes it work the way you seemed to be saying it
> should work and seems to make sense in general.

What do I need to do in order to incorporate your fix with the current 
GnuCash release?

> What related messages are you referring to?  I don't see anything in
> this bug report from either Tim Barber or John Halton.

Bug 722140 is related and has input from Barber and Halton:

   https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=722140

That report lacks evidence of the consensus and consultation that would 
give me confidence in the cash flow implementation we have now. It would 
be helpful to know if any standards compliance has guided the design.

> I doubt that
> anyone has audited the GnuCash cash flow report against GAAP.  I
> personally certainly haven't.

My use of "generally accepted accounting practises" was meant in the 
literal semantic sense. It was inadvertent that it happens to be what 
GAAP stands for as I have absolutely no idea what GAAP has to say about 
such things. I do think that the surest way to limit adoption of GnuCash 
as a viable accounting tool alternative is to have it generate 
non-standard reports that surprise accountants and other business folk, 
regardless of whether those standards are formal ones or merely defacto 
by virtue of Quicken and the like dominating the industry.

Carl