[GNC] GnuCash getting worse?

[Geert Janssens]

Hi R Losey,

Your concerns are appreciated. As a currently non-active developer I was a bit sad to see 
the struggles of the two most recent releases. I know the current devs do what they can 
though.

Their issue is not a lack of money. It's less available time in a shrinking pool of volunteers. 
This is a hard problem to solve.

There is so much that needs to be done. Obviously there is the actual coding
- fixing bugs
- keeping up withc changing requirements of our dependencies (think webkit, gtk, 
aqbanking,...)
- adapting to evolving coding practices
- and even adapting to changes in a larger ecosystem (like changes in the Windows, 
MacOS or Linux environments, changes in the financial world ranging from currency 
symbol changes to new requirements for tax filings)
- refactor code to keep it maintainable in the long run
- improving test suites to catch regressions
- ...

Besides that it is also about everything else that's required to maintain a project. Things 
that come to mind immediately are
- bug triaging
- responding to user questions on mailing lists and irc
- maintaining automated build systems for nightly development snapshots
- running these nightly builds in order to verifying bug fixes, catch regressions and test 
new features
- guiding less experienced or new contributors to successful contributions
- maintaining a website
- translations (which have vastly improved since we changed to Weblate!)
- ...

That's a huge pile of work for only a handful of volunteers. Money won't increase the 
amount of available time unfortunately. The available time can be increased though by 
having more people helping out in any of the above.

A simple example: if more users would from time to time download a nightly build and do 
their typical GnuCash routines with it, we could potentially catch more regressions before 
release. I'm sure there are others.

My main point is (and this is not only for GnuCash but for many free software projects) we 
really need more helping hands!

End of my plea :)

Regards,

Geert

Op donderdag 28 december 2023 05:33:11 CET schreef R Losey:
> Let me start off by trying to avoid hateful responses...
> 
> I worked in the software industry, and the programs I supported have had
> their share of issues. I remember (with hung head) when we went through a
> patch in which we would claim to have fixed a problem, only to have it
> recur, and then fixed that and then had another problem occur. It was a
> really bad time, and we took a lot of heat for it.
> 
> I also know that GnuCash is free, thanks to the intense dedication of a
> relatively small number of people... for whom and to whom, I am very
> grateful.
> 
> However.
> 
> I started using GnuCash about 8 years ago, and I generally upgraded each
> quarter as the new versions came out. My own experience in software led me
> to delay doing the update for 7-10 days -- just in case there was a bug
> that necessitated a re-release (and it happened just enough to make me glad
> I waited from time to time).
> 
> I am still running 5.3 because (as has been documented here), the 5.4
> windows release had a bug that left a process running.  "No problem", I
> thought -- I'll just skip 5.4 and install 5.5 when it comes out.
> 
> Well, 5.5 is out, and it looks like the Scheduled Transactions no longer
> function properly, especially in regard to variable placeholders. This is a
> feature I used and cannot use GnuCash if this is broken. This makes 5.5
> also unusable for me. This is the first time I can remember when I could
> not download a new release - let alone two of them.
> 
> I don't know what the problem is or what the best solution is -- perhaps
> everyone on this list could contribute a few dollars to give
> the hardworking developers a chance to "re-charge", as it were? Perhaps
> a quarter needs to be spent only fixing bugs and ignoring adding new
> features? Perhaps the developers just need to take a break for a quarter?
> 
> I don't mean this at all in a harsh or critical way; I am just concerned
> that a program I really like seems to be slipping somehow.