hledger/NOTES

hledger project notes & ideas

"...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

* to do
** TODO bugs/cleanup
*** no total in filtered balance report
*** register pat doesn't filter transactions
*** two acct patterns broken
*** better encapsulation/layering
**** above/below cacheLedger ?
** ledger features
*** handle arbitrary precision accurately
*** handle non-convertible currencies
*** handle time logs
**** fix timelog parser
**** handle time amounts
     switch to Data.Time.*
      fix errors
       - read seconds to pico
       try System.Time ?
*** - account/description patterns
*** -p period expressions
*** !include
*** -j and -J graph data output
*** more speed
*** full per-currency precision & thousands separator handling
*** ledger 3-style elision
*** -d display expressions
*** read gnucash files
*** other ledger 3 features
*** single space before currency can parse as an auto transaction
** new features
*** alternate timelog format
*** infer clock-out
*** graph automation
*** entry and smart data entry
*** incorporate timeclock features
*** better layout
** testing
*** better use of quickcheck/smallcheck
     http://blog.codersbase.com/2006/09/01/simple-unit-testing-in-haskell/
*** ledger compatibility tests
** documentation
*** literate manual
*** better use of haddock
*** differences/issues
**** ledger does not support -f- (without space)
**** ledger shows description comments as part of description, we do the same
**** ledger does not sort register by date
**** ledger can show wrong output due to thousands separators
**** ledger balance with an account pattern shows a redundant total
**** hledger does not choose symbol separation, thousands separators, and precision based on first entry of each currency
     (currently: chooses precision for all currencies based on first entry)
**** hledger does not parse automated/periodic entries except at start of file
* 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

* misc
** compare other languages! a parser generator and decent speed is required
*** python: http://cheeseshop.python.org/pypi/ZestyParser, pysec, pyparsing
*** squeak: LanguageGame, T-Gen, SmaCC
*** lisp: ?
*** ruby: too slow (?)

** 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/