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some minor cleanup

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git-svn-id: svn+ssh://svn.gnucash.org/repo/gnucash/trunk@2565 57a11ea4-9604-0410-9ed3-97b8803252fd
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Linas Vepstas
2000-07-11 01:06:24 +00:00
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@@ -5,10 +5,12 @@
<meta name="generator" content="HTML Tidy, see www.w3.org">
<title>GnuCash Project Goals</title>
<meta name="description" content=
"The Linux GnuCash project aims at creating a world-class personal finance package. Goals include ease-of use, double entry, OFX support, charts, and reports, and multi-user support.">
<meta name="keywords" content=
"linux, OFX, accounting, finance, financial, ledger, double entry, GPL, gnu">
<meta name="description" content= "The Linux GnuCash project
aims at creating a world-class personal finance package.
Goals include ease-of use, double entry, OFX support,
charts, and reports, and multi-user support.">
<meta name="keywords" content= "linux, OFX, accounting, finance,
financial, ledger, double entry, GPL, gnu">
</head>
<body bgcolor="#eeeeee" fgcolor="#000000">
@@ -65,10 +67,10 @@
<li><a href="#feats">Features</a></li>
</ol>
<hr>
<!--===================================================--><a
name="arch"></a>
<!--===================================================-->
<a name="arch">
<h1>Architectural Goals</h1>
</a>
There are some over-reaching design principles and philosophies
that we intend to maintain. Some of these concepts and terms
are introduced in this section.
@@ -190,7 +192,9 @@
<hr>
<!--===================================================-->
<a name="reqs">
<h1>Requirements</h1>
</a>
Implicit in this desire for extensibility is the need to build
financial applications supporting two major classes of users:
@@ -252,17 +256,16 @@
sophistication in such areas as:
<ul>
<li>Payroll</li>
<li>Payroll (Batch processed and individual)</li>
<li>Inventory Control</li>
<li>Inventory Control &amp; Asset Management</li>
<li>Amortization Schedules, Depreciation</li>
<li>Shipping and Receiving</li>
<li>Accounts Receivable</li>
<li>Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable (A/R, A/P)</li>
<li>Credit Card Processing</li>
<li>Accounts Payable</li>
<li>Asset Management</li>
</ul>
</li>
@@ -330,7 +333,9 @@
<hr>
<!--===================================================-->
<a name="size">
<h1>Sizings</h1>
</a>
This section attempts to guesss how hard it would be to
implement certain features.
@@ -352,8 +357,7 @@
<li><b>Large</b> More than 12 pm</li>
</ul>
<table border="1" summary=
"Personal Finance Functionality Requirements">
<table border="1" summary= "Personal Finance Functionality Requirements">
<tr>
<th>Feature</th>
<th>Sizing</th>
@@ -656,16 +660,17 @@
<hr>
<!--===================================================-->
<a name="feats">
<h1>Features and Functions</h1>
</a>
This section reviews the current status of various features.
Some of these are 'in process', some are 'almost done', some
are 'completely done'. This section thus provides status on
both where we've been, and where we're going.
<dl>
<dd><a name="i18n"></a></dd>
<dt><b>Internationalization</b></dt>
<dt><a name="i18n"><b>Internationalization</b></a></dt>
<dd>
All menus, markup and help-text should be
@@ -864,7 +869,9 @@
href="http://www.htdig.org/">htdig</a>) better categorize the
help. <a href="http://www.senga.org/mifluz/html/">Mifluz</a>
might be more embeddable ... I am told that htdig-API is in
good solid condition for this, but undocumented.</dd>
good solid condition for this, but undocumented.
<p></p>
</dd>
<dt><a name="glitz"><b>Themes, Icons, Glitz</b></a></dt>
@@ -1164,13 +1171,15 @@
<dt><b>Check Printing</b></dt>
<dd>
Create a check-printing ability.
Create a check-printing ability. Includ MICR (Magnetic Ink,
Computer Readable) check printing abilities.
<p><b>Status:</b></p>
<ul>
<li>Bill Gribble has built a prototype based on the
gnome-print. Waiting for gnome-print to mature ...</li>
gnome-print. Waiting for gnome-print to mature ...</li>
<li>MICR Fonts are available & brought to mailing list.
</ul>
<br>
<br>
@@ -1409,16 +1418,14 @@
<dd>
Ability to export Quicken QIF files.
<p>Several design alternatives are apparent:</p>
Several design alternatives are apparent:
<ul>
<li>
A special 'report' that writes out qif could be
created.
<p>This would use the 'reports' infrastructure to
generate qif's.</p>
This would use the 'reports' infrastructure to
generate qif's.
</li>
<li>It is fairly easy to traverse the data in the engine
@@ -1500,6 +1507,7 @@
<dd>
Install on Redhat, Caldera, Corel, SuSE, FreeBSD, TurboLinux,
etc.
<p></p>
</dd>
<dt><a name="currency"><b>Multiple Currencies</b></a></dt>
@@ -1591,10 +1599,10 @@
<dd>
Download, save, annotate investment news and research.
<p>Provide a way of storing news stories with accounts, and
Provide a way of storing news stories with accounts, and
possibly annotating individual transactions in the same
way.</p>
way.
<p></p>
</dd>
<dt><a name="loan"><b>Loan and Mortgage Calculators</b></a></dt>
@@ -1676,15 +1684,23 @@ next due date mm/dd/yy
<dt><a name="tech"><b>Technical Stock Analysis</b></a></dt>
<dd>Provide technical stock analysis graphs, <em>e.g.</em>
volume, 90 moving avg, beta, etc. See gstalker for example of
how to do it ...</dd>
volume, 90 moving avg, beta, etc. See gstalker for example of
how to do it ...
<p></p>
</dd>
<dt><a name="sink"><b>Depreciation, Sinking
Funds</b></a></dt>
<dt><a name="sink"><b>Asset Depreciation, Sinking Funds,
Amortization Schedules</b></a></dt>
<dd>Hmm ... some variation on the concept of loans? Need to
support different deprciation schedules (see IRS books for
that).</dd>
<dd>Need to
support different deprciation schedules (see IRS books for
that). Asset depreciation is complex; there are many
different deprciation schedules, and these vary from
country to country, and change when new tax laws are
implemented. It might be hard for free software to provide
a no-cost subscription to updated depreciation modules.
<p></p>
</dd>
<dt><a name="ofx"><b>OFX support</b></a></dt>
@@ -1728,9 +1744,6 @@ next due date mm/dd/yy
<li>A compile-time parser was developed and
abandoned.</li>
</ul>
<br>
<br>
<p>Note that the organizations developing OFX are looking
to use XML as their "formats of the future;" this may
@@ -1781,8 +1794,7 @@ next due date mm/dd/yy
</pre>
</dd>
<dt><a name="tab"><b>Tab-delimited ASCII file
format</b></a></dt>
<dt><a name="tab"><b>Tab-delimited ASCII file format</b></a></dt>
<dd>
People <em>like</em> to be able to read file contents in
@@ -1819,42 +1831,43 @@ etc ...
<dd>
Gotta prepare those taxes.
W-2, W-3, 941, 940 Processing.
<ul>
<li>
TurboTax
<p>categorize items according to different tax
schedules</p>
TurboTax --
categorize items according to different tax
schedules
</li>
<li>VAT</li>
<li>VAT -- Value Added Tax. Varies from country to country.
</li>
<li>estimate income taxes</li>
<li>estimate itemized deductions, find potential
deductions, categorize them</li>
<li>Estimate income taxes.
Estimate itemized deductions, find potential
deductions, categorize them</li>
</ul>
<p></p>
</dd>
<dt><a name="palm"><b>Sync with Palm Pilot
organizers</b></a></dt>
<dt><a name="palm"><b>Sync with Palm Pilot organizers</b></a></dt>
<dd>There are Quicken-workalikes that run on the
PalmComputing platform; it would be good to inter-operate
with this. See
<a href="ftp://ryeham.ee.ryerson.ca/pub/PalmOS/">PalmLink</a>
and <a href="http://www.orbits.com/Palm/">Palm & Linux</a>.
PalmComputing platform; it would be good to inter-operate
with this. See
<a href="ftp://ryeham.ee.ryerson.ca/pub/PalmOS/">PalmLink</a>
and <a href="http://www.orbits.com/Palm/">Palm & Linux</a>.
<p></p>
</dd>
<dt><a name="emerg"><b>Emergency Records
Organizer</b></a></dt>
<dt><a name="emerg"><b>Emergency Records Organizer</b></a></dt>
<dd>Put together a single-page report showing critical info
about accounts, etc.</dd>
about accounts, etc.
<p></p>
</dd>
<dt><a name="engine"><b>Enriched Engine, Financial
Objects</b></a></dt>
<dt><a name="engine"><b>Enriched Engine, Financial Objects</b></a></dt>
<dd>
The current system makes a distinction between the data
@@ -1902,12 +1915,11 @@ etc ...
<b>Books</b> Ability to close a book at the end of the
fiscal year, thus indicating that nobody is permitted
to "mess around" with that old data.
<p>In a business environment, the auditors may have
In a business environment, the auditors may have
"signed off" on the validity of the data; at that
point, the ability to modify audited data should be
<em>very</em> tightly controlled, or even outright
forbidden.</p>
forbidden.
</li>
</ul>
@@ -1930,20 +1942,20 @@ etc ...
<li>
<tt>BeginEdit()/RollbackEdit()/CommitEdit()</tt>
routines mostly in place,
<p>These "Transaction processing constructs" should
These "Transaction processing constructs" should
simplify creation of an SQL back end, or some other
more sophisticated database engine.</p>
more sophisticated database engine.
</li>
<li>Multiple currency support is present but still pretty
"raw."</li>
"raw."</li>
<li>Query engine is minimal/sparse in capabilities.</li>
<li>Linas &lt;linas@linas.org&gt; is maintaining the
engine code.</li>
engine code.</li>
</ul>
<p></p>
</dd>
<dt><a name="sql"><b>SQL I/O</b></a></dt>
@@ -1951,23 +1963,57 @@ etc ...
<dd>
A module is necessary to allow data to be fetched from an
SQL database, and for that database to be updated.
There has been <em>much</em> discussion about this on
mailing lists both for GnuCash and
<a href="http://www.menet.umn.edu/~curt/cbb/">CBB.</a>
Major points have included:
<p>There has been <em>much</em> discussion about this on
mailing lists both for GnuCash and <a href=
"http://www.menet.umn.edu/~curt/cbb/">CBB.</a> Major points
have included:</p>
<br>
<br>
<ul>
<li>The use of a database allows only that data which
is actually <em>in use</em> to be loaded into
memory. This permits managing larger sets of
transactions more efficiently.
</li>
<br><br>
<li>It also allows data to be pushed out to the DBMS
<em>immediately after entry,</em> rather than waiting
for the user to "save the books."
</li>
<br><br>
<li>Using a client/server SQL database might make it easier
to turn GnuCash into a multi-user system.
</li>
<br><br>
<li>By using a well-known DBMS, outside programs are
provided a well-defined way of getting at, and
perhaps even modifying, GnuCash data.
(Actually, this is not true: GnuCash already provides
a uniform, well-documented, prefered data access API.
As long as this
API is used, there is some gaurantee that data is stored
in a self-consistent fashion. Not using the GnuCash
programming interfaces risks corrupting the data.
Direct access to the data is dangerous and discouraged.
Furthermore, The API is guarenteed to be backwards
compatible with a variety of data storage formats.
Due to enhancements, the actual form of the data stored in
a flat file, or in the SQL database, may change without
warning.)
</li>
<br><br>
<li>
Those SQL databases available on Linux tend to involve
considerable <em>administrative</em> overhead in terms
of getting them set up.
<p>This may be a minor cost to a business enterprise
that routinely hires DataBase Administrators.</p>
<p>It is <em>not</em> acceptable to require this of
naive users that may find "simple" things like</p>
This may be a minor cost to a business enterprise
that routinely hires DataBase Administrators.
It is <em>not</em> acceptable to require this of
naive users that may find "simple" things like
<pre>
% su -
Password:
@@ -1977,82 +2023,58 @@ Password:
</pre>
to be challenging.
</li>
<br><br>
<li>
It might be useful to use an embedded database engine
like unto <a href="http://www.sleepycat.com/">Sleepycat
DB</a>, <a href=
"ftp://koobera.math/uic.edu/www.cdb.html">cdb,</a> or
something like <a href=
"http://www.opengroup.org/public/prods/dmm4.htm">
DB</a>,
<a href="ftp://koobera.math/uic.edu/www.cdb.html">cdb</a>,
or something like
<a href="http://www.opengroup.org/public/prods/dmm4.htm">
ISAM</a> (Note CQL++ supports ISAM access methds), or
even an embedded SQL engine such as <a href=
"http://www.ispras.ru/~knizhnik/gigabase.html">
even an embedded SQL engine such as
<a href="http://www.ispras.ru/~knizhnik/gigabase.html">
GigaBASE</a>.
<p>The reasons to do so include:</p>
<ul>
<li>
The use of a database allows only that data which
is actually <em>in use</em> to be loaded into
memory.
<p>This permits managing larger sets of
transactions more efficiently.</p>
</li>
<li>It also allows data to be pushed out to the DBMS
<em>immediately after entry,</em> rather than waiting
for the user to "save the books."</li>
<li>
By using a well-known DBMS, outside programs are
provided a well-defined way of getting at, and
perhaps even modifying, GnuCash data.
<p>Interoperability is generally considered a good
thing...</p>
</li>
</ul>
The reasons to do so include ... ???
</li>
<br><br>
<li>
GnuCash presently uses a document-oriented model, where
the <em>entire</em> set of books are loaded in, and
dumped out, all at one fell swoop.
<p>GnuCash needs to be modified to access the database
GnuCash needs to be modified to access the database
in a transactional manner. This is at least partly
implemented with the <tt>Begin()/End()</tt> constructs
in the engine.</p>
in the engine.
<p>Some transactional thoughts: entire SQL
<p>
Some transactional thoughts: entire SQL
tables/databases do not need to be locked while the
user is editing a transaction via the GUI.</p>
<p>Instead, an optimistic approach, similar to that
user is editing a transaction via the GUI.
Instead, an optimistic approach, similar to that
employed by CVS (concurrent version system, a mechanism
for storing versions of source code) could be used: if
the edits conflict with changes made by others, edits
are be rejected en-masse, allowing the user to merge
and correct their changes.</p>
<p>Important note: updating SQL does <em>not</em>
and correct their changes.
Important note: updating SQL does <em>not</em>
require locks to be held for extended periods of
time!</p>
time!
</p>
</li>
<li>
The SQL engine chosen should be fully transactional,
passing the 'ACID' test (Atomicity, Consistency,
Isolation, Durability).
<p>Note that <a href=
"http://openacs.org/why-not-mysql.html">MySQL does not
satisfy the 'ACID' criteria</a>.</p>
Note that
<a href="http://openacs.org/why-not-mysql.html">MySQL
does not satisfy the 'ACID' criteria</a>.
</li>
</ul>
<p></p>
</dd>
<dt><a name="multiuser"><b>Multi-user Support</b></a></dt>
@@ -2061,18 +2083,16 @@ Password:
Multi-user support should be added with either an SQL
backend to the engine, and/or through CORBA interfaces to
the engine.
<p>Project Kontor and also FreeMoney is working on SQL
Project Kontor and also FreeMoney is working on SQL
schemas; Kontor is also working on Java RMI/CORBA
interfaces.</p>
<p>Another possibility is to create a web application
interfaces.
Another possibility is to create a web application
server, and have users do much/most of I/O via a web
interface, possibly using the register object as a browser
plugin.</p>
<p>The following industrial-strength features are
needed:</p>
plugin.
The following industrial-strength features are
needed:
<br><br>
<ul>
<li>transaction-oriented queuing of updates</li>
@@ -2087,13 +2107,17 @@ Password:
<li>encryption of network connections</li>
</ul>
<p></p>
</dd>
<dt><a name="arap"><b>Accounts Payable,
Receivable</b></a></dt>
<dt><a name="arap"><b>Accounts Payable, Receivable</b></a></dt>
<dd>Add features to track sales receipts and other pending
sources of income, as well as owed sums.</dd>
sources of income, as well as owed sums. It must be possible
to match invoices to payments. It must be possible to
track the average age of an amount-due/amount-owed.
<p></p>
</dd>
<dt><a name="payroll"><b>Payroll</b></a></dt>
@@ -2101,27 +2125,40 @@ Password:
Payroll introduces a <em>sizable</em> amount of complexity
in terms of the need to comply with constantly-changing
government regulations in whatever country one is in.
<p>While the GnuCash "engine" might remain free,
While the GnuCash "engine" might remain free,
maintenance of payroll functionality would require
"subscribing" to an update scheme; it might be troublesome
to try to provide such a "subscription" free of charge.</p>
to try to provide such a "subscription" free of charge.
<p></p>
</dd>
<dt><a name="invoice"><b>Invoicing</b></a></dt>
<dd>Invoicing. To design an invoice, need to have a
mini-word-processor/simple drawing plug-in. Is
Abisource/Abiword a candidate? Probably needs bonobo...</dd>
mini-word-processor/simple drawing plug-in. Is
Abisource/Abiword a candidate? Probably needs bonobo...
<p></p>
</dd>
<dt><a name="order"><b>Order Entry</b></a></dt>
<dd>
Mini-GUI allowing users to type in orders.
<p></p>
</dd>
<dt><a name="estimate"><b>Job Costing</b></a></dt>
<dd>Ability to prepare and track estimates.</dd>
<dd>Ability to prepare and track estimates.
<p></p>
</dd>
<dt><a name="expense"><b>Expense Accounts</b></a></dt>
<dd>Expense Account Automation, including air, car, hotel,
dining. Receipts, reservations, cancellations.</dd>
dining. Receipts, reservations, cancellations.
<p></p>
</dd>
</dl>
<h1>References</h1>