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83d14e1c1c
It is split into - /libgnucash (for the non-gui bits) - /gnucash (for the gui) - /common (misc source files used by both) - /bindings (currently only holds python bindings) This is the first step in restructuring the code. It will need much more fine tuning later on.
282 lines
11 KiB
Plaintext
282 lines
11 KiB
Plaintext
/** \page multicurrency Multicurrency Discussion
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<cstim> goonie: well...
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<goonie> How about this:
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<cstim> goonie: You can print each value as a gnc-monetary
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goonie: this?
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<goonie> cstim: don't worry, go on with your outline.
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<cstim> How are you printing balances right now?
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I guess you plug a \a gnc-numeric into the html code.
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If you do a s/\a gnc-numeric/\a gnc-monetary/
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... then everything would be multi-currency compliant
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Of course the \a gnc-monetary needs the actual currency specified.
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Would that lead to problems?
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Definition of \a gnc-monetary is in src/scm/gnc-numeric.scm
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<goonie> Cool.
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<cstim> Right now every \a gnc-monetary is printed like $500.23, DEM 123.45, CHF 456.32
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<goonie> I think that should work fine.
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<cstim> but the formatting of \a gnc-monetary could be modified by any style sheet.
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<goonie> You also had some code for calculating totals in multiple currencies?
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<cstim> goonie: ouch. Yes. But that gets complicated quickly.
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<goonie> Yes, it does.
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<cstim> goonie: You will need to use a commodity-collector from report-utilities.scm
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<goonie> OK, cool, I think I can figure it out.
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<cstim> If you want the total of only one commodity, you can use the 'getpair action of commodity-collector...
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but if you want to show (correctly) all of the currencies, you will have a lot of trouble.
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Basically, I have the "reference implementation" in html-utilities.scm .
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<goonie> OK, excellent.
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<cstim> You can see how I print just one balance...
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in the big function \a gnc:html-build-acct-table, line 297, where I print the total sum.
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That would be a starting point to see how a balance with a bunch of commodities gets printed.
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<goonie> cstim: taking it up a level for a second, how would you prefer a total for a
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collection of splits in different currencies to be displayed?
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<cstim> what do you mean by "total for splits"?
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<goonie> OK, consider a transaction report for the account Expenses:Beer for the period
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1/1/2001 to 2/1/2001 (UK date format ;)
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and let's say I've had beer in Australia, the US, Germany, and Hong Kong during that period.
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further, let's assume that my "native currency" is AUD.
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cstim: try some of the Australian specialty beers.
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<cstim> yes
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<goonie> cstim: but even VB or Carlton Draught is an improvement on soap suds . . . er, Budweiser.
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but back to Gnucash matters . . .
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<cstim> yes
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<goonie> now there's several possibilities for doing the totals here . . .
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<cstim> wait wait
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what accounts and what splits are you thinking of?
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or in other words, what are your sorting/account/viewing parameters?
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<goonie> Only one account selected, sorted by date, say (we'll discuss subtotals in a sec).
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<cstim> goonie: One account means that there is only one currency, right?
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<goonie> dave_p: hang on, let me just check . . .
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s/dave_p/cstim
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<cstim> oh
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<goonie> dave_p: what's the status of currency-in-transaction?
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<cstim> s/dave_p/???/
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<goonie> nope, really dave_p this time :)
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<cstim> dave_p is away: I'm doin' stuff
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AFAIK an account has a commodity and a transaction has a commodity.
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<goonie> correct.
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<cstim> \a gnc:account-get-commodity, \a gnc:transaction-get-commodity
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<goonie> However, read the comments in TransactionP.h
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\verbatim
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* The common_currency field indicates the currency type that
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* all of the splits in this transaction share in common. This
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* field is going to replace the currency field in the account
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* structures.
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\endverbatim
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<cstim> yeah, that's right.
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<goonie> So, in the short term, your assumption is correct.
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In the long term, not the case.
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<cstim> What I would usually call the "currency" of an account is in Gnucash acctually called "security".
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\a gnc:account-get-commodity will return this security of the account.
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<goonie> Gotta love terminology.
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The reason for the differentiation is for stock/mutual fund accounts, if I recall correctly.
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<cstim> The more recent comments about commodities are in Transaction.h, line 229 ff.
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or Account.h, line 203ff.
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<goonie> Yep, so the situation I described above can't happen right now, but will be possible
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in the near future. Which brings us back to how should we display things:
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A total for each currency.
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<cstim> What account would that be?
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<goonie> The account Expenses:Beer.
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<cstim> What security will it have?
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<goonie> AUD
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<cstim> okay.
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<cstim> go ahead
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<goonie> OK, say that there's only four transactions in that account for the period in question:
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$2 in AUD, 5 USD, 1 EURO, and 12 HKD being the values. What should we display as the total(s)?
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Or more to the point, what options do we need to offer?
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<cstim> waitwait. Expenses:beer has security AUD.
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So there is one Transaction between Cash:USD and the beer.
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And one between Cash:Euro and the beer.
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And one between (what the heck is) Cash:HKD and the beer.
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<goonie> Hong Kong Dollar, BTW.
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<cstim> And, say, those Transaction have the transaction-commodity according to the Cash:*
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<goonie> yep.
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<cstim> But the split which belongs to Exp:Beer has only one value
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and that value represents the beer expense in AUD.
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i.e. in the split's account's security.
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<goonie> hang on . . . let me think this through carefully . . .
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<cstim> ok, lets get things straight: Each split has two fields, value and damount
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Quote from a grib posting last October:
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\verbatim
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- Eliminate the 'share price' field from the Split structure and
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replace it with a 'value' field. The 'value' is a translation of
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the Split's 'damount' (which is the amount of the Account's
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security involved) into the Transaction's balancing currency.
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\endverbatim
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the last sentence is the one that matters.
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<goonie>
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\verbatim
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* value is the amount of the account's currency involved,
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* damount is the amount of the account's security. For
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* bank-type accounts, currency == security and
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* value == damount.
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gnc_numeric value;
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gnc_numeric damount;
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\endverbatim
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from src/engine/ TransactionP.h
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<cstim> that's outdated.
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In the long run: value is the amount of the transaction-commodity involved, damount is
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the amount of the account-commodity involved.
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<goonie> OK, but the value returned from \a gnc:split-get-value is the value rather than the damount.
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sorry for the long delay, I was reading code to make sure I understood what was going on.
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value being the one denominated in the transaction-commodity.
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<cstim> That's right. \a gnc:split-get-value gives you the value, whereas
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\a gnc:split-get-share-amount gives you the damount
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Maybe that functions need some name change in the future.
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<goonie> perhaps.
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the trouble is that there are so many things that need names in gnucash, that you start to run out :)
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<cstim> :)
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We could \a gnc:split-get-share-amount => \a gnc:split-get-damount
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whatever. My point for the Beer is let's have some.
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<cstim> oops.
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I would expect that the transaction report uses \a gnc:split-get-share-amount
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which in this case gives you already the amounts exchanged into AUD and everything's fine.
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<goonie> You would prefer that over the transaction-specific value, then?
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<cstim> Well, if I want the list for one specific account, then I would expect all amounts to be
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in that account's commodity, i.e. the account-commodity (formerly known as security :)
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<goonie> yep.
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But then the problem just arises in a different light if you have multiple accounts, sorted by date, say.
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<cstim> I would recommend a name change for \a gnc:split-get-share-amount.
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multiple accounts. okay, let's talk about that. what scenario do you think of?
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<goonie> cstim: could you mail Dave wrt function renaming?
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<cstim> I'll send a mail to the ML
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<goonie> OK, let's say you've selected Expenses:Champagne (in Francs), Expenses:Saki
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(in Yen), and Expenses:VB (in Aussie dollars), and you want a report for all those transactions
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for the past month, sorted by date. You have Cash:Francs, Cash:Yen and
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Cash:Aussie accounts with the expected currencies.
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<cstim> what's VB?
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<goonie> Victoria Bitter (Australian Beer).
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<cstim> okay. well...
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<goonie> If you want a distinctively Australian Alcoholic beverage, s/VB/Sparkling Red
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<cstim> Lets have some. ( goonie offers cstim a glass of fine Rutherglen sparkling red. )
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Transaction report: but it doesn't make much sense to show a total sum for that anyway, does it_
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s/_/?/ oh well, it might.
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<goonie> Option 1) display a total for each currency in the report.
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<cstim> exactly.
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Option 2) shows the total for only one currency, the report-currency.
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Option 3) somehow gets the right exchange rate so that it also ends up with only one total.
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I'd recommend option 2 for now. For option one you basically would have to copy the
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code out of the html-build-acct-table function cited above.
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<goonie> So, what happens to transactions not in the report-currency in option 2) - they aren't totalled?
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<cstim> Maybe with the tons of comments it is do-able
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goonie: yes, they dissolve in heat and aren't totalled.
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<goonie> OK, I think I can implement 1) and 2). 3 (which might have to be split into 3a, 3b . . . )
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can probably wait. Well, I could implement a "quickie" 3a that just grabs a current exchange
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rate and does the conversion on it.
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<cstim> again, for 1) you "just" have to copy ~100 lines of code from html-utilities.scm and
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adapt them to your table structure.
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<goonie> that has all sorts of problems, but might be useful if taken with a grain of salt.
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OK.
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<cstim> oh, a quick 3) costs you about 5 lines of extra cost.
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<goonie> I think I can cope with that :)
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<cstim> just look into pnl.scm and see how they (i.e. I) use gnc:make-exchange-alist and
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\a gnc:make-exchange-function both from \a src/scm/commodity-utilities.scm
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<goonie> OK, cool. Thanks for your help.
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<cstim> what did you mean by "quickie" 3a that just grabs a current exchange rate "
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a dialog box? a parameter? gnc-prices?
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<goonie> gnc-prices. or a parameter.
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something other than digging through a bunch of historical data trying to figure out what
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the exchange rate was at the time of particular transactions.
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<cstim> parameter: Bad. gnc-prices: Goood. I'd be happy if someone could implement that
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to augment the current code in commodity-utilities.scm Oh, the exchange rate at the time
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of a particular *transaction* is easy -- that's just the fraction value/damount .
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<goonie> not always - what if the transaction is (say) yen/yen but you want to display in dollars?
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for instance, our glass of saki, paid for in cash yen.
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<cstim> Yes, right. currently the commodity-utilities stuff uses a weighted average over the
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history. But using the last known exchange rate instead may be useful at times. Maybe I'll
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implmement something like that maybe if i have time :)
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<goonie>diff -up 'gnucash/src/engine/ Query.c' 'gnucash_transaction_report/src/engine/ Query.c'
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*/
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