2010-05-24 GnuCash IRC logs
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09:15:08 <ChoHag> Is this ('GnuCash Network Login' -- http://svn.gnucash.org/docs/HEAD/networkoverview.html) a pie-in-the-sky future feature design, or something which exists and is implemented today?
09:17:59 <warlord> I'm pretty sure it's a pie-in-the-sky design.
09:18:15 <ChoHag> Right. Good.
09:18:15 <ChoHag> Sort of.
09:18:38 <ChoHag> So down to earth, are there language bindings for the engine API in anything other than C?
09:18:45 <warlord> Scheme
09:19:26 <ChoHag> Is it up to date?
09:22:45 <ChoHag> Or put another way, is it generated automatically?
09:27:12 <warlord> For the most part, yes. There may be some APIs that aren't wrapped. We use SWIG.
09:28:03 <warlord> But for some things (like perhaps the SX API) I dont think there are wrappers. But for most of the engine there are.
09:28:57 <ChoHag> Not having fringe stuff is fine.
09:29:38 <ChoHag> I just want to be able to manipulate the basic stuff. Not having my accounting automated from start to finish is bugging me.
09:30:21 <warlord> Define "automated"?
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09:32:36 <ChoHag> Not involving a mouse.
09:33:14 <ChoHag> A script reacts to an email received and process accordingly. In this case, creating and exporting (to latex) an invoice.
09:33:18 <ChoHag> Later, paying it too.
09:33:33 <ChoHag> (Recording that it was paid, that is)
09:34:54 <ChoHag> It's been bugging me for nearly a year that I have to go do it manually.
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09:37:08 <warlord> Hmm... And how does the script know the accounts involved?
09:37:14 <warlord> Or the customer?
09:38:02 <warlord> I'm not 100% sure how much of the business API is wrapped. I don't know if you can easily post an invoice or process a payment from scheme.
09:38:21 <ChoHag> Well maybe I can figure it out.
09:38:49 <ChoHag> For now I want to get something up so that I can have access to the books with my own code rather than a GUI.
09:38:57 <ChoHag> Then I'll play aroudn with that and see how I go.
09:39:15 <warlord> ???
09:39:23 <warlord> What's wrong with the GUI (other than NIH)?
09:40:07 <ChoHag> Nothing, if I want to sit at my screen doing monkey work, which I don't.
09:40:39 <ChoHag> I want to tell GnuCash to do Foo, I don't want to do Foo for it. That's what computers are for.
09:42:17 <warlord> You still have to choose customers, accounts, enter numbers, dates. You still have to tell gnucash to do Foo..
09:42:24 <warlord> You're just pushing the problem elsewhere.
09:42:37 <warlord> How are you planning to specify all that?
09:42:56 * ChoHag shrugfs
09:43:03 <ChoHag> I haven't got that far yet.
09:43:40 <ChoHag> Right now I just want to have the account file opened programmatically and see where I can go from there.
09:45:12 <warlord> You might find that you have to write LOTS of code to do what you think it relatively simple. For example, there is not a "LookupCustomerByName" API.
09:45:34 <ChoHag> I don't think it's relatively simple.
09:45:41 <ChoHag> I've peeked at the code enough to work that out.
09:47:53 <warlord> Why why write so much code that effectively has to duplicate what the GUI does... instead of, perhaps, extending the GUI to make it easier to use?
09:48:38 <warlord> Instead of doing something that just works for you, why not do something that would be useful to the community as a whole?
09:48:48 <warlord> (although, doing that would require writing code in C)
09:49:48 <ChoHag> A whole number of reasons.
09:50:04 <ChoHag> Not least being that the process should be instigated from a location in which the GUI is unavailable.
09:50:21 <ChoHag> eg. A client site, or my phone. On a train.
09:51:01 <ChoHag> I don't fancy manipulating *any* GUI with the silly little pokey stick that my phone tries and utterly fails to treat as a mouse.
09:51:26 <warlord> True, I wouldn't want to do anything from a phone ;)
09:51:36 <warlord> But from a customer site..... Don't you have your laptop with you?
09:52:31 <warlord> ... Or can't you wait until you get home?
09:52:57 <ChoHag> Why wait?
09:53:17 <ChoHag> And what if I don't want details of my accounts up on the screen while away from the privacy of my own office?
09:53:45 <warlord> Why wait? So you can do it from the privacy of your own office. ;)
09:53:55 <warlord> As for the privacy... That's what screen guards are for.
09:54:35 <warlord> ;-)
09:55:12 <warlord> On the serious side... Yes, batch processing would be nice. In fact there's an open RFE (from IIRC 2002) for it.
10:01:43 <warlord> ... it hasn't been done because it's a HARD problem. There's so much user interaction required to make sure you "get it right"..
10:03:26 <ChoHag> In my view the main thing is an accessible API.
10:03:58 <ChoHag> As far as I'm concerned, the scriptability of any app is paramount. Most of what I use is shell and emacs.
10:04:49 <ChoHag> What people then hack up using the API can be incorporated into the GUI if somebody feels the urge.
10:05:08 <ChoHag> Ideally, of course, the GUI uses the API in such a way that that's insanely easy.
10:11:46 <warlord> Unfortunately that's not currently the case. There is a lot of logic in the GUI code.
10:12:20 <ChoHag> quelle surprise
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