486 lines
15 KiB
Plaintext
486 lines
15 KiB
Plaintext
hledger project notes
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=====================
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* principles
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** We aim to make reliable, maintainable, usable, useful software, sustainably.
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** "bugs" are errors, as in the programmers messed up
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** packaging before docs before tests before fixes before refactoring before features
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** automate
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** measure
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** test continuously, test everything
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** less is more
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** pair programming
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** inspiration
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"...simplicity of design was the most essential, guiding principle.
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Clarity of concepts, economy of features, efficiency and reliability of
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implementations were its consequences." --Niklaus Wirth
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"The competent programmer is fully aware of the limited size of his own
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skull. He therefore approaches his task with full humility, and avoids
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clever tricks like the plague." --Edsger Dijkstra
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* to do
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** packaging, installability
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*** easier installation
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**** all platforms
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***** binary build/publish process
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***** reduce dependencies
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***** split packages ?
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**** linux
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***** keep up with debian/ubuntu haskell packagers
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**** mac
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***** easy data entry, then
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***** easy installer
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***** easy startup
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**** windows
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***** easy data entry, then
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***** easy installer
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***** easy startup
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** documentation, marketing
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*** add missing
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**** hledger/ledger feature matrix
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*** reduce
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*** aesthetics
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**** better screenshots/images
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*** automation
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**** keep blurbs in sync
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***** README file
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***** hledger.hs module description
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***** hledger.cabal description field (exclude home page link)
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***** home page description (http://joyful.com/Hledger/editform)
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***** mail list description (http://groups.google.com/groups/hledger -> edit welcome msg)
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***** gmane description
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***** darcsweb description
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**** keep Options.hs and README option list in sync
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**** discovering commands for --help
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**** announcements
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*** liveness
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**** show feeds on site ?
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***** commits (darcsweb)
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**** weekly repo activity summary on list
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**** available feeds
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*** screencasts
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**** intro
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***** intro to hledger
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****** place in the world
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****** basic installation
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****** quick demo
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****** where to go from here
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***** installing hledger on windows
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***** installing hledger on mac
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***** installing hledger on unix
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***** accessing hledger's support forums
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****** website
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****** mail list
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****** irc channel
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***** reporting a hledger bug
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**** using
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***** income/expense tracking
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***** time tracking
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***** downloading bank data
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***** reconciling with bank statement
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***** see time reports by day/week/month/project
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***** get accurate numbers for client billing and tax returns
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***** find unpaid invoices
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**** developing
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***** intro to hledger development
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***** testing hleder
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***** documenting hledger
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***** a hledger coding example
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***** a tour of hledger's code
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**** ledger cooperation
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*** developer docs
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**** internal api docs
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**** external api docs
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**** DEVGUIDE
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***** How to do anything that needs doing in the hledger project.
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****** website & documentation
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******* overview of hledger docs
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******* how the site is built
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******* convenience urls
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list.hledger.org - mail list
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bugs.hledger.org - issue tracker
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bugs.hledger.org/1 - go to specific issue
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bugs.hledger.org/new - create a new issue
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hledger.org/{list,bugs}/* also works
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****** issue tracking
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****** testing
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****** coding
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****** funding process
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***** reference
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****** unsafe things which may fail at runtime
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******* incomplete pattern matching
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******* error
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******* printf
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******* read
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**** project notes
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**** functional programming
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hledger is written in the Haskell programming language;
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it demonstrates a pure functional implementation of ledger.
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*** presenting/live demos
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*** develop funding process
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**** license change ?
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**** donate button, see chimoo guy
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**** funding document 2009/01
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***** text
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=======
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funding
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=======
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vision
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======
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How to grow the hledger project ?
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I'm looking for ways to fund active and sustainable hledger
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development by me and others.
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A secondary goal is to develop new sustainable models and processes
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for funding free software developers and other community projects.
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This is sometimes the point in a free sw project's development where
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the project leader seemingly loses the plot, alienates contributors
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and destroys the community's good-will dynamic. I've seen it many
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times, but a few have succeeded and I want to be one of them - so
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that I can eat, have a modicum of stability and do my best work in
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service to the community. At worst, I'll look bad but the project
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will still be out there. At best I'll live more easily and joyfully
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while serving the cause of Financial Solvency!
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So I'm beginning by posting these notes and inviting your thoughts -
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as much or as little as folks want to give. How could we do this
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so that all benefit ?
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funding models
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==============
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Brainstorming some possible funding models & processes.
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* grants
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How to find possible grant sources ?
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* con
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* getting grant funding is a whole new field to study
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* slow and time intensive, I imagine
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* donations
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Solicit donations.
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* pro
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* simple
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* con
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* often difficult
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* donators do not feel a direct benefit
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* shareware
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Release the project under a non-free license, requiring commercial
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users to pay the fee on an honour basis (eg).
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* pro
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* flexible, low administration, encourages trust
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* con
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* effectively closed-source ? would inhibit collaboration
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* benefit is still indirect, only a proportion will pay
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* enforcement/guilt may come into play
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* limited-time premium branch
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The funded version of hledger gets some desirable premium features
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before the free version and is closed-source. Funders/customers pay
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a fixed price for immediate access to the funded version. Yearly, a
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new funded version is released and the old funded version is merged
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into the free version. (To gain experience it could be done on a
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smaller scale, eg monthly/quarterly.)
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* pro
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* all features reach community, predictably
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* customers are also community funders
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* customers receive direct benefit from paying
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* con
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* free sw developers compete/outshine the premium branch
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* bounties
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Some (or all) feature, bugfix, project management or other tasks are
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published with a bounty attached. When the bounty is paid by one or
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more funders, the task is performed and delivered. Or, bounty is paid
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on completion of task (honour system).
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* pro
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* funders receive direct benefit
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* bounties using fundable.org (eg)
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A more organised form of the above, perhaps facilitating trust,
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co-funding and larger bounties.
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* pro
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* proven process developed by others
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* con
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* fundable takes a cut
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* hosted service
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Offer hosted and managed ledgers, perhaps with premium features, for
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a monthly fee
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* pro
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* proven model
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* clear benefit to customers, especially non-technies
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* con
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* success of free/self-installed version competes with hosting service
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* some will avoid web-hosting their financial data
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* customisation
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Offer per-user customisations, possibly to be merged in the trunk,
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for a fee
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* support
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Offer user/developer support for a fee
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* training
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Offer application and/or financial training for a fee
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* profit sharing/tithing
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Each period (quarter, half-year, year), donate 10% (eg) to project
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contributors and/or supporting projects
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* transparent funding
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Funding and usage of funds is published on the web as a ledger
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* opaque funding
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All funding and spending need not be made public
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strengths
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=========
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hledger has some aptitudes in this area:
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* hledger deals with money => hledger users will tend to have some money
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* hledger's purpose is to increase financial success => users will feel its value to their bottom line
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* hledger is a tool that can support project funding, eg by publishing community funding data
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weaknesses
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==========
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* hledger doesn't have a nice ui yet
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* hledger has a limited featureset
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* hledger requires work, eg data entry and chart of accounts maintenance
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* hledger is geeky
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* there is competition
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* hledger has no compelling market niche (aside from payment-averse free software users)
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competitors/fellow niche inhabitants
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====================================
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* web apps
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* netsuite
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* sql-ledger, ledgersmb
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* wesabe
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* ...
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* desktop apps
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* quickbooks
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* quicken
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* ms money
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* grisbi
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* gnucash
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* excel
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* ledger!
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* ...
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***** responses
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****** albino
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have you considered talking to business who hate their financial sw and going from there
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****** gwern
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most haskellers have never heard of hledger, sounds arrogant or hubristic to talk of charging for it
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**** home edition
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** testing
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*** documentation
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**** site up, current
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**** demo up, current
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**** haddock building, current
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**** doctests ?
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*** unit
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**** hunit
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**** quickcheck
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**** easier unit test development
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*** functional
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**** ledger file parsing tests
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***** test all ledger file format features
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***** clarify hledgerisms in file format - that hledger can read but ledger can't
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**** ledger 3 baseline tests
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**** auto-compare xml output with ledger's ?
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**** allow multiple tests in .test ?
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*** performance
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**** speed, benchmark tests
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**** memory usage
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*** build & packaging
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**** use -Wall and anything else useful
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**** build with multiple ghc versions
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**** cabal test
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**** hackage upload
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**** cabal install with:
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***** ghc 6.8
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***** ghc 6.10.x
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***** windows
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***** linux
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***** macos
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***** no flags
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***** happs flag
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***** vty flag
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*** field
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**** talkback, auto bug reports
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**** usability
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**** download & usage stats
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** errors
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*** parsing: rules file with trailing whitespace
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*** parsing: rules file with comment paragraphs but no rules
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unexpected end of input
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expecting blank line or comment line
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*** parsing: comment lines immediately after postings
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*** parsing: accept all real-world ledger files
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*** web: happstack ipv6 issue 6
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** refactoring, code cleanup
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*** pair programming
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*** seek more modularity
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*** try export lists
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*** graph and reduce dependencies
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*** clarify levels of abstraction
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**** balance sheet view - data model, view layout
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**** hledger web framework - define routes, handlers/views/actions/controllers/presenters, skins/styles..
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**** happstack - ? happstack api..
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**** hledger app platform - hledger.hs, Options, Utils, withLedgerDo..
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**** hledger lib - Ledger, TimeLog, Account, Transaction, Commodity..
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**** hledger dev platform - make build, ci, test, bench, prof, check, release..
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**** general libs - directory, parsec, regex-*, HUnit, time..
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**** cabal - hledger.cabal, hackage..
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**** ghc - ghc 6.8, 6.10..
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**** haskell 98
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**** unix/windows/mac platform
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*** inspiration
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http://community.haskell.org/~ndm/downloads/paper-hoogle_overview-19_nov_2008.pdf -> Design Guidelines
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** features
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*** easier timelog formats
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*** implicit timelog account
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*** easy data entry
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*** assume current year as default
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*** wide/customisable/consistent layout
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*** --flat balance report format
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*** effective/actual? dates for postings
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*** better web ui/gui
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*** nice reports with charts
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*** ledger-compatible xml output ?
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*** allow no command or unordered command with pattern args
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*** more automated bank data conversion
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*** ofx download
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*** watching a changing ledger
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*** more date syntax ? last nov, next friday, optional this, week of
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*** more period syntax ? every N days, biweekly
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*** accept multiple -f files
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*** more reliable tidy layout from print
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*** parse more file formats - gnucash, qif, ofx, csv..
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*** i18n
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*** speed
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*** clear interfaces/surfaces/plugin architecture
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* misc
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** things I want to know
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*** time
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where have I been spending my time in recent weeks ?
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where have I spent my time today ?
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what is my status wrt spending plan for this week/month/year ?
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what is my current status wrt time spending goals ?
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*** money
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where have I been spending my money ?
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what is my status wrt spending plan for this week/month/year ?
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what is my current status wrt spending/savings goals ?
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what are all my current balances ?
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what does my balance history look like ?
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what does my balance future look like ?
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are there any cashflow, tax, budgetary problems looming ?
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*** charts
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[1:27pm] <sm> I have decided I am not getting enough visible day-to-day value out of my ledger, I need more of that to stay motivated
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[1:27pm] <Nafai> What do you think will help in that?
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[1:27pm] <sm> I think some simple self-updating charts, or even good reports in a visible place
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[1:28pm] <sm> something I don't have to spend an hour fiddling with to get answers
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[1:38pm] <sm> Nafai: identifying/designing some useful reports/charts seems to be blocking me
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[1:39pm] <sm> there are probably some standard ones I should use
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[1:40pm] <sm> a graph of daily net worth is probably one of the simplest
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[1:58pm] <sm> what else.. a chart of weekly expenses in key categories
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[1:58pm] <sm> ditto, monthly
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[1:58pm] <sm> a chart of monthly income
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[1:59pm] <sm> those three should help me be more clear about cashflow status
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[2:00pm] <sm> also I'd like something that shows me how much I am on top of financial tracking - how current my numbers are, when last reconciled etc - at a glance
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[2:01pm] <sm> another simple one: current balances in all accounts
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[2:01pm] <sm> those would be a great start
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[2:04pm] <sm> daily net worth, weekly expense, monthly expense, monthly income, confidence/currentness report, and balance report
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[2:05pm] <sm> let's see, which of those 6 would give most payoff right now
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[2:05pm] <sm> probably 5
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[2:06pm] <sm> how could I measure that ?
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[2:06pm] <sm> number of days since last ledger entry..
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[2:06pm] <sm> number of ledger entries in last 30 days (compared to average)
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[2:07pm] <sm> number of days since last cleared checking entry (indicating an online reconcile)
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[2:08pm] <sm> those would be a good start. How do I make those visual
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[2:09pm] <sm> well I guess the first step is a script to print them
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** data representation
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*** http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0327/
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*** http://www.n-heptane.com/nhlab/repos/Decimal/
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*** http://www.n-heptane.com/nhlab/repos/Decimal/Money.hs
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*** http://www2.hursley.ibm.com/decimal/
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** snippets
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-- trace a MixedAmount
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matrace :: MixedAmount -> MixedAmount
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matrace a@(Mixed as) = trace (show as) a
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-- normalise and trace a MixedAmount
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nmatrace :: MixedAmount -> MixedAmount
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nmatrace a = trace (show as) a where (Mixed as) = normaliseMixedAmount a
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-- cabal test
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import System.FilePath
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main = defaultMainWithHooks $ simpleUserHooks { runTests = runTests' }
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runTests' :: Args -> Bool -> PackageDescription -> LocalBuildInfo -> IO ()
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runTests' _ _ _ lbi = system testprog >> return ()
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where testprog = (buildDir lbi) </> "hledger" </> "hledger test"
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** http://lwn.net/Articles/314577/
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** financial software
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*** http://weberp.org
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**** http://www.weberp.org/weberp/doc/Manual/ManualContents.php
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** issues with pandoc's rst support
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*** treats HOME's h2s as h1
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*** quotes only first line of a :: literal block
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*** doesn't support http://docutils.sourceforge.net/docs/ref/rst/restructuredtext.html#indirect-hyperlink-targets
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** must-read article on currency & capital gains accounting
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http://www.mscs.dal.ca/~selinger/accounting/tutorial.html#1.2
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