The people behind GnuCash aim to create a world-class GPL'ed Open Source Personal Financial - Application for GNU/Linux and other Unix's. This page aims to - review some of the technical and development issues surrounding - this product, representing a sort of FAQ for developers and - contributors, to suggest directions when developers are trying to - determine how to implement new functionality.
+ Application for GNU/Linux and other Unix's. This page reviews + some of the technical issues and development status surrounding + this project. It is a kind of an FAQ for developers and + contributors, providing status, and suggesting directions and + technologies for deploying new features. -To get a better idea of what + If you simply want to get a better idea of what + GnuCash is and what it does, visit its home page.
+ "http://gnucash.org">home page. The home page contains + screen shots, news items, and mailing list archives.There are currently several different versions of - GnuCash.
+ GnuCash. We've adopted the kernel numbering scheme: + even minor relase numbers (1.2.x, 1.4.x) are considered to mark + stable releases, while odd numbers (1.3.x) mark development + releases.The latest Gnome version, and latest versions in general, - are currently available only via CVS.
+ are currently available only via CVS. Occasionally, some of the + more stable CVS versions are given a version number, and packaged + as a precompiled deb or rpm install package. + + Naive or begining users should probably stick to version + gnucash-1.2.5: although this version is quite old and lacking in + many features, it is known to work. More adventurous users can try + one of the 1.3.x releases: these days, they are pretty stable, and + work pretty well. However, we cannot gaurentee that they are + flawless. We've tried to make sure that no matter how broken + these get, they won't mangle your data, but we can't make promises. +-
Precompiled versions are available, but usually - only for the stable releases. Don't use the unstable versions - unless you are ready for excitement and adventure, and are - prepared to cope with a need to keep extensive backups.
This document is divided into several sections.
@@ -87,10 +105,10 @@ thought of as a manipulator of the data, a Controller. -Thus, the Motif or Gnome GUIs are merely two possible + Thus, the Motif or Gnome GUIs are merely two possible manipulators of the data; others, based on e.g. - Qt/KDE, emacs, Java applets or Java servlets ought to be - possible.
+ web/cgi-bin, Qt/KDE, emacs, Java applets or Java servlets + ought to be possible.GnuCash also needs to deal with multiple distributed data sources: stock quotations from the net or transaction confirmations from online banks and brokerage houses, or from more mundane sources, such as file imports, or merger of data - from several users.
+ from several users. -Amongst these terms, the concept of a global Model-View is + Amongst these terms, the concept of a global Model-View is dated, and somewhat inappropriate. Rather, we need to be concerned about how data is represented in the local address space of the GUI, how the GUI manipulates it, how data is @@ -133,16 +152,21 @@ structures include:
The Engine currently handles only a small set of data sources:
@@ -635,6 +659,9 @@Stock portfolio tools should include a Cost Averaging report, Market Index report, Stock Option values, Estimation of capital gains tax liabilities.
+Status: