Mac users have a huge problem, I think! Gnucash won't open anything now

[Anita Graves]

Walt,

I appreciate what you are telling me.  I struggle myself with some of Apple’s products, like Pages and Numbers and Keynote…  I am not happy with them.  But, on the whole I like the OS…  I am always challenging myself to understand what I am doing and how, and I have had good luck with open source software.  I really like GnuCash.  I tend to avoid commercial software.  I don’t use Safari unless I have to.  I am an archivist currently, but trained as an anthropologist, and there is a detective lurking inside me that wants to unravel the mysteries …  thanks for your help and your comments.  Much appreciated. 

Anita

> On 4 Apr 2017, at 8:22 PM, Securenym.net <wroberts at securenym.net> wrote:
> 
> Anita,
> 
> There are many high quality applications that are not built specifically for the Mac, but since the Mac is built on top of an operating system known as Darwin which is a variant of Unix, as is Linux, it will run these applications just fine.  There are some interfaces that do not work, mainly because Apple does things a little bit differently.  File handling is one of them.  One of the many advantages (and occasional disadvantage) of open source software, is people tend to be more standards compliant, even when the manufacturer isn’t.  This means that a program written that can be run well on a Mac, Linux, BSD Unix or Windows, which provides a much bigger base for the product, and we all benefit.  But, since each of these systems does things a tad different internally, the program’s interactions with the operating systems may not be exactly the same, and minor adjustments how to approach the program may be required.
> 
> As far as opening anything you click on, this is not always true with even with very high quality and open source software, including gnucash, and others that I use frequently.  Even some programs that are native (including OpenOffice/LibreOffice) sometimes don’t behave exactly the same, but they are the same enough to give value.   I continue to use them because they offer far more value than Apple’s Pages, Numbers, and Keynote applications.    I have not found these issues any more problematic with “commercial” software, nor did I find manufacturer support for these programs as useful as the open source forums.
> 
> Of course sometimes native applications like Safari don’t behave properly either.   I use a program called FreeCad which absolutely doesn’t recognize Apple’s way of doing things, but it is such a valuable program to me, that I have learned its idiosyncrasies and am very productive with it.
> 
> I’m sure, if you decide to continue to use gnucash or other non-Apple mac programs,  you too will learn how to harness the power of the operating systems you choose to use.  But John is right, if you find you can’t live with the occasional different ways to use the programs, then selecting a native program to do your work would be your best option.  
> 
> Walt
> 
> 
>> On Apr 4, 2017, at 11:42 AM, John Ralls <jralls at ceridwen.us> wrote:
>> 
>> 
>>> On Apr 4, 2017, at 9:13 AM, Anita Graves <anitagraves at mac.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Dear Folks who always are helpful,
>>> 
>>> Please tell me why I can’t open anything now.  The Gnucash app just tells me it can’t find an old file I clicked on to try to open it.
>>> 
>>> I’m not used to this kind of treatment.  As a Mac user, I can open anything I click on.  Except Gnucash files.  I have a folder on my desktop with lots and lots of Gnucash files in it, some are .gnucash and some are .log files.  I try to open only the .gnucash files, but the app won’t open them.  It says it can’t find the file.
>>> 
>>> What can I do so that I can open any Gnucash file I want to open anytime I want to open it???
>>> 
>>> The app doesn’t even give me the last four files I worked with.
>>> 
>>> Thanks for the much appreciated feedback.
>> 
>> GnuCash isn't a native Mac application, it's a Linux application that happens to run on Mac. I've made a few customizations to better fit the Mac UI, but opening a file by double-clicking it in Finder isn't one of them. We've already explained to you how to open files in GnuCash, and I use the most-recently-used list in the file menu frequently and find that it works perfectly well.
>> 
>> If that's a barrier to you using GnuCash on Mac, I'm sorry, but too bad. Perhaps you'll find iBank or Moneyflow better suits your needs.
>> 
>> Regards,
>> John Ralls 
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