History ------- I began writing gnofin thinking that I would simply create a command line database program for keeping track of my expeditures from within Linux. I was getting so tired of always booting into Windows just to be able to run Quicken. And, while I had tried gnucash and even used it for some time, I was displeased by how incomplete and often unstable it was, so I set forth on writing a simple file format. I kept telling myself not to blow too much time working on this project, but I couldn't help from thinking about it at random times during the day... finally, I just broke down and started coding. Quickly I began to realize that it would be cool (and maybe not too difficult) to add a graphical interface to my file format. I had already messed around with GTK+ and I knew that GNOME was supposed to make creating menus and toolbars easier, so I thought this would be a good chance for me to really try to make something using GTK+/GNOME. What an experience!! The work these guys have done to create GTK+/GNOME is phenomenal!! In no time I had the interface stuff in place. Then it was just a matter of hooking up the user events to my file format code. This, of course, is where the real programming started. While there are still many features I would like to add to Gnofin, I think that it is currently quite usable. In fact, I have been very good this semester about keeping my checkbook and savings account balanced... as far as I am concerned, enough said :-) I hope you find it as useful as I have. Darin, May 1999 What's up with this name? ------------------------- Gnofin = GNOME + financial Installation ------------ For help with installation, please see the file INSTALL. Usage ----- You can specify (on the command line) an existing accounts file for gnofin to load: gnofin [file] Debugging --------- Gnofin will produce extra debugging information if configured with the --enable-debug flag. This enables standard GTK+ checks in addition to the following defines: ENABLE_DEBUG_TRACE : generates stack trace as gnofin runs (see trace.h) ENABLE_SAFE_LIST_DEREF : flags an attempt to dereference a NULL GList node (see LIST_DEREF) ENABLE_DUMP_STATE : adds a dump state menu item to the help menu for debugging
