reporting, again aka python for people (was: History Quotes)

[Wm...]

Sat, 14 Nov 2015 09:25:14 
<CAB2pxDszjd=8paSWti5OjXKwZxK_99j8Mod6P9bHpX5P_29fJg at mail.gmail.com>
Sébastien de Menten <sdementen at gmail.com> wrote...

Wm:
 > P.S. Sebastien: I've been meaning to get around to writing to you
 > about piecash and pandas and reporting because I'm seeing lots of
 > potential there, but that is another thread.

[same thread, change of Subject, if it is new or not depends on your 
threading model]

P.S. Wm : I was just thinking on working a bit today on exactly this !
Pandas would be a boon as base for some reporting/charting once we can 
get
the account/transaction info combined/joined with the price info.


===
Some thoughts:

at the moment (I think) piecash can only talk to GnuCash's data if it is 
in SQL.  How much work would be involved in getting piecash's SQLAlchemy 
to read [1] XML?  Do you think the effort would be worth it?  My concern 
is that even if piecash or similar is the route to reporting freedom 
there will still be some people that will resist changing file format 
even if they are told "it is all sql inside!"

at the moment I am playing with pandas and my GnuCash data using Conda 
and Ipython, are you using something else?  My thought is that if we 
want other people to try this out we need a relatively easy path for 
installation and use, ideally something that can be scripted.  Anaconda 
is looking like a good base to me, I'm just wondering if you have come 
across a better alternative in your exploration.

what is the sticking point on the account/transaction info from your 
point of view?  if it is with regard to 2.6.9 not saving the prices 
table that is temporary and can safely be disregarded by anyone with a 
time horizon longer than the end of next week.

overall we should bear in mind that just because you and I and some 
other people can talk SQL and see reporting freedom in that it is worth 
a piece of shit in a gutter if we can't put it together in a way that 
most people can use; in plain terms if we can't make it simple there 
will always be people asking for the ever decreasing number of people 
that understand scheme to write a report for them.  That way, in the 
long term, GnuCash dies [2]

===

if you're reading this and wondering what on earth we are talking about 
take a look at this

https://github.com/quantopian/pyfolio

that and loads more comes for free once pandas is used to leverage the 
GnuCash data you already have.

===

[1] to avoid confusion I suggest we concentrate on read access for the 
moment.  I know piecash can write, you know piecash can write but, I 
think, discussing it distracts from the main issue.

[2] hyperbole alert :)

-- 
Wm...