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site: faq: history: clean up, cheer up

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Simon Michael 2016-02-17 15:25:21 -08:00
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@ -6,28 +6,29 @@
### History
I was a happy user of John Wiegley's [Ledger](http://ledger-cli.org)
(begun in 2003) for some time. There was a long period of stagnation
in that project. I grew tired of bugs, missing and wrong documentation,
and explaining the situation to confused newcomers.
I really, truly needed a reliable accounting tool.
I really didn't want to spend time learning C++.
I discovered John Wiegley's [Ledger](http://ledger-cli.org) in 2006, and was a happy user at first.
Then came a long period of stagnation in that project,
with missing and misleading documentation, irksome bugs, and a confusing release situation.
I felt Ledger could be implemented well and perhaps even more
successfully in the Haskell programming language, which has some
compelling advantages. (It encourages the coding style known as pure
functional programming, allowing more bug-free, concise and
maintainable software. It provides a more abstracted, portable
platform making installation easier. It is attractive for contributors
to work on.)
I urgently needed a reliable accounting tool that I enjoyed using. I also wanted to lower the barriers to entry for newcomers.
For a while I worked within the Ledger project, reporting bugs and setting up a new domain and website.
But, I didn't want to spend time learning C++. And I did want to spend time learning Haskell.
I felt Ledger could be implemented well and perhaps more efficiently in that language,
which has some compelling advantages.
<!-- (It encourages the coding style known as pure functional programming, -->
<!-- allowing more bug-free, concise and maintainable software. It provides -->
<!-- a more abstracted, portable platform making installation easier. It is -->
<!-- attractive for contributors to work on.) -->
I couldn't ask John to start over - back then he was not the Haskell
lover he has since become! - so in 2007 I started prototyping a
parser, and kept going. My goals were to (a) learn how well Haskell
could do in this (simple, thought I) real-world application, and (b)
maybe, build on Ledger's experience to create a new implementation
prioritising ease of use. It would have simpler features, fewer bugs,
better documentation, and additional user interfaces.
I couldn't expect John to start over - at that time he was not the Haskell
fan he is now - so in 2007 I began experimenting myself, built a
toy parser, and kept tinkering. I wanted
(a) to get better at Haskell by building something useful to me,
(b) to learn how well Haskell could work for real-world applications,
and as increasingly time passed,
(c) to provide a new implementation with a greater focus on ease of use, simpler
features, absence of user-visible bugs, and high-quality documentation and web presence.
Also to experiment with new user interfaces, APIs, etc.
Later the Ledger project revived and attracted more contributors. The
two projects collaborate freely and ideas have travelled in both
@ -37,11 +38,8 @@ troubleshooting, exploring the design space, and growing the "*ledger"
community. I also give back to Ledger by providing infrastructure
like [ledger-cli.org](http://ledger-cli.org),
[LedgerTips](http://twitter.com/LedgerTips), IRC support on #ledger
etc.
For some time hledger shared Ledger's IRC channel #ledger. In 2014 I
added the dedicated [#hledger](irc://irc.freenode.net/#hledger)
channel.
etc. In 2014 I added a [#hledger](irc://irc.freenode.net/#hledger) channel
to allow more hledger-specific discussion.
### Future ?