mirror of
https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger.git
synced 2024-12-28 04:46:31 +03:00
490 lines
15 KiB
Plaintext
490 lines
15 KiB
Plaintext
hledger project notes
|
|
=====================
|
|
|
|
* principles
|
|
** We aim to make reliable, maintainable, usable, useful software, sustainably.
|
|
** "bugs" are errors, as in the programmers messed up
|
|
** packaging before docs before tests before fixes before refactoring before features
|
|
** automate
|
|
** measure
|
|
** test continuously, test everything
|
|
** less is more
|
|
** pair programming
|
|
** inspiration
|
|
"...simplicity of design was the most essential, guiding principle.
|
|
Clarity of concepts, economy of features, efficiency and reliability of
|
|
implementations were its consequences." --Niklaus Wirth
|
|
|
|
"The competent programmer is fully aware of the limited size of his own
|
|
skull. He therefore approaches his task with full humility, and avoids
|
|
clever tricks like the plague." --Edsger Dijkstra
|
|
|
|
|
|
* to do
|
|
** packaging, installability
|
|
*** easier installation
|
|
**** all platforms
|
|
***** binary build/publish process
|
|
***** reduce dependencies
|
|
***** split packages ?
|
|
**** linux
|
|
***** keep up with debian/ubuntu haskell packagers
|
|
**** mac
|
|
***** easy data entry, then
|
|
***** easy installer
|
|
***** easy startup
|
|
**** windows
|
|
***** easy data entry, then
|
|
***** easy installer
|
|
***** easy startup
|
|
** documentation, marketing
|
|
*** add missing
|
|
**** hledger/ledger feature matrix
|
|
*** reduce
|
|
*** aesthetics
|
|
**** better screenshots/images
|
|
*** automation
|
|
**** keep blurbs in sync
|
|
***** README file
|
|
***** hledger.hs module description
|
|
***** hledger.cabal description field (exclude home page link)
|
|
***** home page description (http://joyful.com/Hledger/editform)
|
|
***** mail list description (http://groups.google.com/groups/hledger -> edit welcome msg)
|
|
***** gmane description
|
|
***** darcsweb description
|
|
**** keep Options.hs and README option list in sync
|
|
**** discovering commands for --help
|
|
**** announcements
|
|
*** liveness
|
|
**** show feeds on site ?
|
|
***** commits (darcsweb)
|
|
**** weekly repo activity summary on list
|
|
**** available feeds
|
|
*** screencasts
|
|
**** intro
|
|
***** intro to hledger
|
|
****** place in the world
|
|
****** basic installation
|
|
****** quick demo
|
|
****** where to go from here
|
|
***** installing hledger on windows
|
|
***** installing hledger on mac
|
|
***** installing hledger on unix
|
|
***** accessing hledger's support forums
|
|
****** website
|
|
****** mail list
|
|
****** irc channel
|
|
***** reporting a hledger bug
|
|
**** using
|
|
***** income/expense tracking
|
|
***** time tracking
|
|
***** downloading bank data
|
|
***** reconciling with bank statement
|
|
***** see time reports by day/week/month/project
|
|
***** get accurate numbers for client billing and tax returns
|
|
***** find unpaid invoices
|
|
**** developing
|
|
***** intro to hledger development
|
|
***** testing hleder
|
|
***** documenting hledger
|
|
***** a hledger coding example
|
|
***** a tour of hledger's code
|
|
**** ledger cooperation
|
|
*** developer docs
|
|
**** internal api docs
|
|
**** external api docs
|
|
**** DEVGUIDE
|
|
***** How to do anything that needs doing in the hledger project.
|
|
****** website & documentation
|
|
******* overview of hledger docs
|
|
******* how the site is built
|
|
******* convenience urls
|
|
list.hledger.org - mail list
|
|
bugs.hledger.org - issue tracker
|
|
bugs.hledger.org/1 - go to specific issue
|
|
bugs.hledger.org/new - create a new issue
|
|
hledger.org/{list,bugs}/* also works
|
|
|
|
****** issue tracking
|
|
****** testing
|
|
****** coding
|
|
****** funding process
|
|
***** reference
|
|
****** unsafe things which may fail at runtime
|
|
******* incomplete pattern matching
|
|
******* error
|
|
******* printf
|
|
******* read
|
|
**** project notes
|
|
**** functional programming
|
|
hledger is written in the Haskell programming language;
|
|
it demonstrates a pure functional implementation of ledger.
|
|
*** presenting/live demos
|
|
*** develop funding process
|
|
**** license change ?
|
|
**** donate button, see chimoo guy
|
|
**** funding document 2009/01
|
|
***** text
|
|
=======
|
|
funding
|
|
=======
|
|
|
|
vision
|
|
======
|
|
|
|
How to grow the hledger project ?
|
|
|
|
I'm looking for ways to fund active and sustainable hledger
|
|
development by me and others.
|
|
|
|
A secondary goal is to develop new sustainable models and processes
|
|
for funding free software developers and other community projects.
|
|
|
|
This is sometimes the point in a free sw project's development where
|
|
the project leader seemingly loses the plot, alienates contributors
|
|
and destroys the community's good-will dynamic. I've seen it many
|
|
times, but a few have succeeded and I want to be one of them - so
|
|
that I can eat, have a modicum of stability and do my best work in
|
|
service to the community. At worst, I'll look bad but the project
|
|
will still be out there. At best I'll live more easily and joyfully
|
|
while serving the cause of Financial Solvency!
|
|
|
|
So I'm beginning by posting these notes and inviting your thoughts -
|
|
as much or as little as folks want to give. How could we do this
|
|
so that all benefit ?
|
|
|
|
funding models
|
|
==============
|
|
Brainstorming some possible funding models & processes.
|
|
|
|
* grants
|
|
|
|
How to find possible grant sources ?
|
|
|
|
* con
|
|
|
|
* getting grant funding is a whole new field to study
|
|
* slow and time intensive, I imagine
|
|
|
|
* donations
|
|
|
|
Solicit donations.
|
|
|
|
* pro
|
|
|
|
* simple
|
|
|
|
* con
|
|
|
|
* often difficult
|
|
* donators do not feel a direct benefit
|
|
|
|
* shareware
|
|
|
|
Release the project under a non-free license, requiring commercial
|
|
users to pay the fee on an honour basis (eg).
|
|
|
|
* pro
|
|
|
|
* flexible, low administration, encourages trust
|
|
|
|
* con
|
|
|
|
* effectively closed-source ? would inhibit collaboration
|
|
* benefit is still indirect, only a proportion will pay
|
|
* enforcement/guilt may come into play
|
|
|
|
* limited-time premium branch
|
|
|
|
The funded version of hledger gets some desirable premium features
|
|
before the free version and is closed-source. Funders/customers pay
|
|
a fixed price for immediate access to the funded version. Yearly, a
|
|
new funded version is released and the old funded version is merged
|
|
into the free version. (To gain experience it could be done on a
|
|
smaller scale, eg monthly/quarterly.)
|
|
|
|
* pro
|
|
|
|
* all features reach community, predictably
|
|
* customers are also community funders
|
|
* customers receive direct benefit from paying
|
|
|
|
* con
|
|
|
|
* free sw developers compete/outshine the premium branch
|
|
|
|
* bounties
|
|
|
|
Some (or all) feature, bugfix, project management or other tasks are
|
|
published with a bounty attached. When the bounty is paid by one or
|
|
more funders, the task is performed and delivered. Or, bounty is paid
|
|
on completion of task (honour system).
|
|
|
|
* pro
|
|
|
|
* funders receive direct benefit
|
|
|
|
* bounties using fundable.org (eg)
|
|
|
|
A more organised form of the above, perhaps facilitating trust,
|
|
co-funding and larger bounties.
|
|
|
|
* pro
|
|
|
|
* proven process developed by others
|
|
|
|
* con
|
|
|
|
* fundable takes a cut
|
|
|
|
* hosted service
|
|
|
|
Offer hosted and managed ledgers, perhaps with premium features, for
|
|
a monthly fee
|
|
|
|
* pro
|
|
|
|
* proven model
|
|
* clear benefit to customers, especially non-technies
|
|
|
|
* con
|
|
|
|
* success of free/self-installed version competes with hosting service
|
|
* some will avoid web-hosting their financial data
|
|
|
|
* customisation
|
|
|
|
Offer per-user customisations, possibly to be merged in the trunk,
|
|
for a fee
|
|
|
|
* support
|
|
|
|
Offer user/developer support for a fee
|
|
|
|
* training
|
|
|
|
Offer application and/or financial training for a fee
|
|
|
|
* profit sharing/tithing
|
|
|
|
Each period (quarter, half-year, year), donate 10% (eg) to project
|
|
contributors and/or supporting projects
|
|
|
|
* transparent funding
|
|
|
|
Funding and usage of funds is published on the web as a ledger
|
|
|
|
* opaque funding
|
|
|
|
All funding and spending need not be made public
|
|
|
|
strengths
|
|
=========
|
|
hledger has some aptitudes in this area:
|
|
|
|
* hledger deals with money => hledger users will tend to have some money
|
|
* hledger's purpose is to increase financial success => users will feel its value to their bottom line
|
|
* hledger is a tool that can support project funding, eg by publishing community funding data
|
|
|
|
weaknesses
|
|
==========
|
|
* hledger doesn't have a nice ui yet
|
|
* hledger has a limited featureset
|
|
* hledger requires work, eg data entry and chart of accounts maintenance
|
|
* hledger is geeky
|
|
* there is competition
|
|
* hledger has no compelling market niche (aside from payment-averse free software users)
|
|
|
|
competitors/fellow niche inhabitants
|
|
====================================
|
|
|
|
* web apps
|
|
|
|
* netsuite
|
|
* sql-ledger, ledgersmb
|
|
* wesabe
|
|
* ...
|
|
|
|
* desktop apps
|
|
|
|
* quickbooks
|
|
* quicken
|
|
* ms money
|
|
* grisbi
|
|
* gnucash
|
|
* excel
|
|
* ledger!
|
|
* ...
|
|
|
|
***** responses
|
|
****** albino
|
|
have you considered talking to business who hate their financial sw and going from there
|
|
****** gwern
|
|
most haskellers have never heard of hledger, sounds arrogant or hubristic to talk of charging for it
|
|
|
|
**** home edition
|
|
** testing
|
|
*** documentation
|
|
**** site up, current
|
|
**** demo up, current
|
|
**** haddock building, current
|
|
**** doctests ?
|
|
*** unit
|
|
**** hunit
|
|
**** quickcheck
|
|
**** easier unit test development
|
|
*** functional
|
|
**** ledger file parsing tests
|
|
***** test all ledger file format features
|
|
***** clarify hledgerisms in file format - that hledger can read but ledger can't
|
|
**** ledger 3 baseline tests
|
|
**** auto-compare xml output with ledger's ?
|
|
**** allow multiple tests in .test ?
|
|
*** performance
|
|
**** speed, benchmark tests
|
|
**** memory usage
|
|
*** build & packaging
|
|
**** use -Wall and anything else useful
|
|
**** build with multiple ghc versions
|
|
**** cabal test
|
|
**** hackage upload
|
|
**** cabal install with:
|
|
***** ghc 6.8
|
|
***** ghc 6.10.x
|
|
***** windows
|
|
***** linux
|
|
***** macos
|
|
***** no flags
|
|
***** happs flag
|
|
***** vty flag
|
|
*** field
|
|
**** talkback, auto bug reports
|
|
**** usability
|
|
**** download & usage stats
|
|
** errors
|
|
*** parsing: rules file with trailing whitespace
|
|
*** parsing: rules file with comment paragraphs but no rules
|
|
unexpected end of input
|
|
expecting blank line or comment line
|
|
*** parsing: comment lines immediately after postings
|
|
*** parsing: accept all real-world ledger files
|
|
*** web: happstack ipv6 issue 6
|
|
** refactoring, code cleanup
|
|
*** pair programming
|
|
*** seek more modularity
|
|
*** try export lists
|
|
*** graph and reduce dependencies
|
|
*** clarify levels of abstraction
|
|
**** balance sheet view - data model, view layout
|
|
**** hledger web framework - define routes, handlers/views/actions/controllers/presenters, skins/styles..
|
|
**** happstack - ? happstack api..
|
|
**** hledger app platform - hledger.hs, Options, Utils, withLedgerDo..
|
|
**** hledger lib - Ledger, TimeLog, Account, Transaction, Commodity..
|
|
**** hledger dev platform - make build, ci, test, bench, prof, check, release..
|
|
**** general libs - directory, parsec, regex-*, HUnit, time..
|
|
**** cabal - hledger.cabal, hackage..
|
|
**** ghc - ghc 6.8, 6.10..
|
|
**** haskell 98
|
|
**** unix/windows/mac platform
|
|
*** inspiration
|
|
http://community.haskell.org/~ndm/downloads/paper-hoogle_overview-19_nov_2008.pdf -> Design Guidelines
|
|
** features
|
|
*** web: filter patterns
|
|
period doesn't work anywhere
|
|
account doesn't work on balance
|
|
can't filter by description
|
|
*** easier timelog formats
|
|
*** implicit timelog account
|
|
*** easy data entry
|
|
*** assume current year as default
|
|
*** wide/customisable/consistent layout
|
|
*** --flat balance report format
|
|
*** effective/actual? dates for postings
|
|
*** better web ui/gui
|
|
*** nice reports with charts
|
|
*** ledger-compatible xml output ?
|
|
*** allow no command or unordered command with pattern args
|
|
*** more automated bank data conversion
|
|
*** ofx download
|
|
*** watching a changing ledger
|
|
*** more date syntax ? last nov, next friday, optional this, week of
|
|
*** more period syntax ? every N days, biweekly
|
|
*** accept multiple -f files
|
|
*** more reliable tidy layout from print
|
|
*** parse more file formats - gnucash, qif, ofx, csv..
|
|
*** i18n
|
|
*** speed
|
|
*** clear interfaces/surfaces/plugin architecture
|
|
|
|
* misc
|
|
** things I want to know
|
|
*** time
|
|
where have I been spending my time in recent weeks ?
|
|
where have I spent my time today ?
|
|
what is my status wrt spending plan for this week/month/year ?
|
|
what is my current status wrt time spending goals ?
|
|
*** money
|
|
where have I been spending my money ?
|
|
what is my status wrt spending plan for this week/month/year ?
|
|
what is my current status wrt spending/savings goals ?
|
|
what are all my current balances ?
|
|
what does my balance history look like ?
|
|
what does my balance future look like ?
|
|
are there any cashflow, tax, budgetary problems looming ?
|
|
*** charts
|
|
[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
|
|
[1:27pm] <Nafai> What do you think will help in that?
|
|
[1:27pm] <sm> I think some simple self-updating charts, or even good reports in a visible place
|
|
[1:28pm] <sm> something I don't have to spend an hour fiddling with to get answers
|
|
[1:38pm] <sm> Nafai: identifying/designing some useful reports/charts seems to be blocking me
|
|
[1:39pm] <sm> there are probably some standard ones I should use
|
|
[1:40pm] <sm> a graph of daily net worth is probably one of the simplest
|
|
[1:58pm] <sm> what else.. a chart of weekly expenses in key categories
|
|
[1:58pm] <sm> ditto, monthly
|
|
[1:58pm] <sm> a chart of monthly income
|
|
[1:59pm] <sm> those three should help me be more clear about cashflow status
|
|
[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
|
|
[2:01pm] <sm> another simple one: current balances in all accounts
|
|
[2:01pm] <sm> those would be a great start
|
|
[2:04pm] <sm> daily net worth, weekly expense, monthly expense, monthly income, confidence/currentness report, and balance report
|
|
[2:05pm] <sm> let's see, which of those 6 would give most payoff right now
|
|
[2:05pm] <sm> probably 5
|
|
[2:06pm] <sm> how could I measure that ?
|
|
[2:06pm] <sm> number of days since last ledger entry..
|
|
[2:06pm] <sm> number of ledger entries in last 30 days (compared to average)
|
|
[2:07pm] <sm> number of days since last cleared checking entry (indicating an online reconcile)
|
|
[2:08pm] <sm> those would be a good start. How do I make those visual
|
|
[2:09pm] <sm> well I guess the first step is a script to print them
|
|
|
|
** data representation
|
|
*** http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0327/
|
|
*** http://www.n-heptane.com/nhlab/repos/Decimal/
|
|
*** http://www.n-heptane.com/nhlab/repos/Decimal/Money.hs
|
|
*** http://www2.hursley.ibm.com/decimal/
|
|
** snippets
|
|
-- trace a MixedAmount
|
|
matrace :: MixedAmount -> MixedAmount
|
|
matrace a@(Mixed as) = trace (show as) a
|
|
|
|
-- normalise and trace a MixedAmount
|
|
nmatrace :: MixedAmount -> MixedAmount
|
|
nmatrace a = trace (show as) a where (Mixed as) = normaliseMixedAmount a
|
|
|
|
-- cabal test
|
|
import System.FilePath
|
|
main = defaultMainWithHooks $ simpleUserHooks { runTests = runTests' }
|
|
runTests' :: Args -> Bool -> PackageDescription -> LocalBuildInfo -> IO ()
|
|
runTests' _ _ _ lbi = system testprog >> return ()
|
|
where testprog = (buildDir lbi) </> "hledger" </> "hledger test"
|
|
|
|
** http://lwn.net/Articles/314577/
|
|
** financial software
|
|
*** http://weberp.org
|
|
**** http://www.weberp.org/weberp/doc/Manual/ManualContents.php
|
|
** issues with pandoc's rst support
|
|
*** treats HOME's h2s as h1
|
|
*** quotes only first line of a :: literal block
|
|
*** doesn't support http://docutils.sourceforge.net/docs/ref/rst/restructuredtext.html#indirect-hyperlink-targets
|
|
** must-read article on currency & capital gains accounting
|
|
http://www.mscs.dal.ca/~selinger/accounting/tutorial.html#1.2
|