[GNC] File Format Documentation (Bug 777893)

[Adrien Monteleone]

Stan,

*From personal experience while testing in my transition from 2.6.19/21 to 3.0 (and eventually between 2.6.19/21 and 3.1 and 3.2 while sqlite3 bugs were worked out) I converted back and forth many times. I had no data issues as a result. I’m not sure if mileage varies for MySQL and Postgres. A developer should confirm if this is either supported or acceptable and if so, David could include this info in his overview. (otherwise, potentially as an anecdote)

*I understand what you’re saying about that sentence, but the same info appears right after it in the next sentence. Perhaps the nearly identical wording used causes my perception. Certainly, I’m familiar with the concept of introductory sentences in paragraphs and the concept of repetitive information in training/teaching — “Tell ‘em what you’re gonna tell ‘em, then tell ‘em, then tell ‘em what you just told ‘em.” To pull that off, you’d need a long presentation and some creative word smithing. A short overview doesn’t really work well with that approach.

But again, those were just my personal preferences based on experience from my writing teachers. I appreciate David taking this on and documenting the choices for users. The wording choice is his.

Regards,
Adrien

> On Aug 15, 2018, at 4:01 AM, Stan Brown <the_stan_brown at fastmail.fm> wrote:
> 
> Thanks for this, David. It seems very helpful and to the point. Only two
> comments:
> 
> * After reading this note, I feel I have a good idea of the pros and
> cons of the two formats. One thing I'd like  see added" is a choice of
> XML or SQL irrevocable, or can the database be converted from one format
> to another later, after we have entered many transactions? It _sounds_
> like a conversion is as simple as a File » Save As; is that accurate?
> 
> * I don't agree with the person who called the second sentence ("The
> default file storage format is XML, while a number of flavors of SQL
> storage are available.") redundant. I saw that sentence as introducing a
> topic, which you then expanded. I've found that readers understand
> better with a short introduction and then a more detailed treatment,
> just as you have written.
> 
> -- 
> Regards,
> Stan Brown
> Tompkins County, New York, USA
> http://BrownMath.com
> http://OakRoadSystems.com