GNUCash as a maintenance project?

[james]

On 07/26/17 11:13, Keith Gallagher wrote:
>  hello.
> 
> Keith Gallagher here, software engineering faculty at Florida Inst. of Technology. This coming term I am teaching an advanced course in software maintenance and evolution; upper division undergraduates  and graduate students are enrolled. (10-12 at this point)
> 
> I'm looking for a course project, something I can set the whole class on to work on as a team.   I am looking for something that is mature, with lots of releases,   has a large and ongoing user community,  and, of course, has lots of  "issues" that need to be addressed!  I have contacted Brad Kuhn, and old student of mine,  and he suggested GNUCash as a possibility.
> 
>  All of the students in the class are familiar with open source rubrics and guidelines and use of  appropriate repositories.
> 
>  But before I send a collection of people  to meddle in the work, I would like to have the approval of the community,  and any guidelines or suggestions  (or help) that you might have  or wish to offer.  For instance: should we do this is a group? Should we do this is a collection of individuals? Etc? Etc.?
>  The caveat is that once the term is over, it is highly unlikely that any of the individuals involved will continue to contribute.  But I can guarantee,  yes guarantee,  that we won't leave it worse than we found it ;-)  and that every issue  that is tackled will be = thoroughly=  vetted and approved before  a merge is requested.
> 
>  thanks for listening.
> 
> -k
> 
> 
> http://web2.fit.edu/faculty/profiles/profile.php?tracks=kgallagher
> 
> http://cs.fit.edu/~kgallagher/
> 
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Sounds like a good idea. Students can 'take ownership' of their personal
accounting, accounting for projects (thesis, dissertation, research.
etc) and be most prepared to step out of college and into a startup or
their own business. Perhaps the android-gnucash modules will be of
special interest to their convenience.

https://github.com/codinguser/gnucash-android

I've also been entertaining the idea of extending gnucash for personal
medical records, not just the financial part but the medical history
part. Over the years, we tend to forget about medical issues, but later
in life, much of what we deal with is a result from decades earlier:
(drinking, excessive sugar intake, lack of sleep, just to mention a few).

So, I do not think anyone should discourage your students from
involvement in gnucash. But they have to realize (and respect) the devs
and folks that 'run the show' for gnucash, evidenced by maturity of
their (actions or interactions) with the wider community. Perhaps
gathering up the students to tackle (code up) something in the
existing todo list, using github; later merging into gnucash?



Surely gentoo linux, a meta-rolling linux distro, would welcome these
coders, with open arms, we sponsor (college) kids via GSoC, all the time
to work on significant improvements to gentoo. At gentoo.org, it's
pretty much a tenant that devs work on what they are interested in.
Gentoo is also a most excellent distro for innovation and fully supports
gnucash.


https://www.gentoo.org/get-involved/mailing-lists/


.02
hth,
James