[GNC] GnuCash and Swedish accounting legislation

[Jim DeLaHunt]

Don, Don, Don:

On 2020-08-11 12:36, doncram wrote:
> … there is an anti-accounting vibe in the GnuCash community, which is
> objectively an insulting, arrogant, unyielding strain.… the computer
> programmers who have developed GnuCash and who support it… the computer
> programmer types, or at least the effective collection of them if not
> every one individually, are being real jerks.…

First of all, if you think that the vibe in the GnuCash community is 
"insulting, arrogant, unyielding"; if you think that the GnuCash 
developers are "being real jerks", then you haven't seen nearly enough 
of the Internet and of free software projects. The GnuCash community is 
a respectful vacation resort compared to some projects to which I 
contribute. The GnuCash developers are usually kind and helpful, and at 
the very worst, sometimes a touch impatient with requests they are 
unable to fulfill. The documentation is extensive and at least somewhat 
helpful.

And I see that you put in a little separation between the computer 
programmers who developed GnuCash, and all those bad programmers, but 
when you unload on "the effective collection of them" you unload on all 
of them.


> … They are willfully ignorant of how real organizations work, of real
> requirements of individual GnuCash users or would-be users, in this area.…
> What part of the following do u not understand: a) [requirement 1 omitted],
> and b) [requirement 2 omitted].  That's enough, but further, there is
> c) [requirement 3 omitted] required by law in Sweden (kudos to the
> sensible government there), and are sensible requirements to be imposed
> upon any organization in its software choice.…
> It is arrogant of computer programmer types to say the requirements a and b
> are silly.  They ignorantly think the only purpose of "freezing" is to
> completely absolutely stop computer programmers.   You probably think this
> song is about you.…

I understand this is a rant, and rants can be fun, and fun things can go 
a bit too far. But do you see that you are sliding into self-parody 
here?  You probably think this song is about _you_.

How is it that you get to say the target user you imagine is the only 
one that matters to GnuCash, and that the usage conditions you imagine 
are the only ones that matter, and that requirements 1, 2, and 3 are 
absolutely mandatory?  There are other target users, there are other 
target conditions, where these requirements are not essential, and their 
lack is not especially a problem. Where is your humility that others — 
even accountants who aren't software developers — might evaluate these 
differently than you?

Framing this discussion as "accountants are correct versus software 
developers are arrogant" is not helpful. Let's judge the ideas, not  the 
people who hold them.

Meanwhile, I think Fred Bone's suggestion is very useful:

> On Tue, Aug 11, 2020 at 10:24 AM Fred Bone <fjpbone at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> There seems to be a fair amount of talking at cross purposes.
> There are (at least) two reasons for wanting to "lock" against
> changing txns before some specified date:
> 1. To freeze the file for audit/regulatory purposes
> 2. To prevent accidental unwanted "backdating" of changes
> Gnucash's mechanism is well suited to (2) but completely useless for
> (1). Conversely, your suggestion is well suited to (1) but completely
> useless for (2).
> This whole discussion rears its ugly head at (ir-)regular intervals
> and perhaps should be in a FAQ document somewhere.


Let's write down this discussion in terms of a) target users, b) scope 
of usage conditions, and c) GnuCash features needed to allow those users 
to do better in those conditions using GnuCash.   We may discover that 
we are talking about different users, and different scopes, than the 
modest ambitions GnuCash currently targets. GnuCash can grow to 
accomplish more, but that takes participation, not just criticism.

         —Jim DeLaHunt, not a trained accountant, self-accounting for 
personal finances and a small sole-proprietor business, not needing 
audits, not complying with Swedish accounting legislation, for whom none 
of these locking features add any value.