[GNC] Use of "dash" as a Separator Character

[Michael Hendry]

> On 23 Jul 2019, at 17:01, Adrien Monteleone <adrien.monteleone at lusfiber.net> wrote:
> 
> Derek,
> 
> I suspected as much, and indeed if one hovers over the input box in preferences where you define your custom separator, the tooltip says “dash” is not allowed among others, presumably because they are either used by the app itself in a hard-coded fashion, or would create havoc if they aren’t escaped properly.

The tooltip on my Mac version of GC 3.5 specifically includes “dash” as one of the legal options.

Michael

> 
> Michael,
> 
> Sorry, your choice of separator is not allowed.
> 
> Regards,
> Adrien
> 
>> On Jul 23, 2019, at 10:42 AM, Derek Atkins <derek at ihtfp.com> wrote:
>> 
>> I don't think that would work.
>> If you change a name of the created accounts, GnuCash will just create a
>> new one.  I think it specifically looks for the name.
>> I also don't think you can *move* those accounts, either.
>> -derek
>> 
>> On Tue, July 23, 2019 11:38 am, Adrien Monteleone wrote:
>>> While the creation of those accounts on the fly is probably hard coded to
>>> use a dash, what if you created them yourself and used a different spacer
>>> in the name, then change your separator character of choice?
>>> 
>>> Options might be ‘Imbalance_GBP’ or 'Imbalance–GBP’ or ‘Imbalance—GBP’.
>>> 
>>> Those last two might look exactly like ‘Imbalance-GBP’ depending on your
>>> e-mail client’s text settings, but they are an en-dash and em-dash
>>> respectively, not hyphens. If your keyboard layout is set to ‘Macintosh’
>>> you should be able to generate those by using OPT- and SHIFT+OPT-
>>> respectively.
>>> 
>>> First change the account separator back to the default, then edit the
>>> names of those accounts, then change the separator to what you want.
>>> 
>>> Then create a test transaction that should attempt to create the Imbalance
>>> or Orphan accounts and see if it uses the ones you renamed, or creates new
>>> ones with dashes instead.
>>> 
>>> Regards,
>>> Adrien
>>> 
>>>> On Jul 23, 2019, at 6:19 AM, Michael Hendry <hendry.michael at gmail.com>
>>>> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> I’ve tried using “dash” as account separator, as it’s easily accessible
>>>> with my left little finger without the need for me to press the shift
>>>> key (as is the case with the colon).
>>>> 
>>>> Unfortunately, when I create and unbalanced or orphan transaction,
>>>> GnuCash creates a new account (Imbalance-GBP or Orphan-GBP) which breaks
>>>> the rule that the separator can’t be used as part of an account name.
>>>> 
>>>> This is OK until the account is closed and re-opened, when GnuCash
>>>> appears to have hung, with the Gnucash title-bar bereft of any menu
>>>> options, and the Main Window unresponsive.
>>>> 
>>>> I discovered accidentally that the GnuCash splash screen and a dialogue
>>>> box warning of the use of the separator character had been obscured by
>>>> the Main GnuCash window.
>>>> 
>>>> The latter may be a Mac OS issue (I’m using GC version 3.5 on an iMac
>>>> with OS X High Sierra.
>>>> 
>>>> I haven’t found reference to these issues in the bug list - are they
>>>> sufficient to warrant notification?
>>>> 
>>>> Regards,
>>>> 
>>>> Michael
>>> 
>>> 
> 
> 
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