In retrospect it may be interesting to add a bit more detail to my train of thought. I skipped it in my original mail as David is a long-time user so I took some parts for granted.
Installing a different version of gnucash can introduce issues on several levels: Firstly, format changes in how we store your financial data itself can result in issues, which is stored wherever you chose the first time you created your book. We support incompatible changes between two major releases only. So gnucash 3.x will be able to load books saved with 2.6.x. And the other way around the last 2.6 release (2.6.21) will be able to load books saved with gnucash 3.x. If you skip major releases (say you last used 2.4 and now want to use 3.x), you are advised to first open the book and resave it in the last intermediary recent release (in the example that would be 2.6.21). In this area we still have an issue to solve with the import matcher bayesian data. In human terms, the importers keep some history on your previous imports to improve their suggestions during future imports. The format in which we store this data has changed and running the importer for the first time sometimes seems to choke on the conversion from the old to the new format. If you're heavily dependent on this, you may have good reason to hold off for a while, though as said, the only way to know for sure is to try (on a copy of your book). Working on a copy will also allow you to revert back to another version if there are issues. Next gnucash also stores user's settings. We sometimes introduce new settings or otherwise modify settings between major releases. I am not aware of any issues in this area during the migration from 2.6.x to 3.x. Which is a good thing, because it's much harder to back up and restore these settings. Thirdly, gnucash also stores meta data in a platform dependent, user specific directory. The location if this directory changed between 2.6 and 3.x and your meta data will be migrated automatically the first time you run gnucash 3.x. After that the 2.6 version of your metadata will not be touched again. So if this goes wrong, you can safely revert to 2.6 and see all the state again as it was before you tried gnucash 3.x. That means which reports you had saved, which reports and tabs were open. Whatever you experiment with in 3.x it will not be carried back to 2.6. The only extra bit of advice I'd give here is: if you decide to revert back to 2.6.x, do remove the 3.x metadata directories. Otherwise the migration will not be rerun in the future when you really are ready to switch to 3.x. The relevant metadata directories are GNC_CONFIG_HOME and GNC_DATA_HOME as described on this wiki page: https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Configuration_Locations Lastly there can be issues in the interaction with gnucash, like it crashes or autocomplete is no longer working, issues with scrollbars, slow saves... While these can be annoying or problematic enough to make you switch back to 2.6, they generally don't affect any of your data directly. So based on these four areas, and the issues you may encounter in each you can evaluate whether or not it's worth for you to make the switch. I'm not pushing anyone, yet on the other hand I love to hear the experiences as that helps us identify which areas to focus on first. Regards, Geert Op zondag 25 november 2018 17:54:29 CET schreef Paul Schwartz: > Geert: > Is it possible to install two versions, side-by-side, in Windows? > > Thanks > Paul > > On Sun, Nov 25, 2018 at 7:56 AM Geert Janssens <geert.gnuc...@kobaltwit.be> > > wrote: > > David, > > > > You keep saying this. While I respect your choice to stay on the safe > > side, > > the only way to know if gnucash 3.x works for you is to test it. That's > > pretty > > easy in Windows. > > > > So I encourage you to run a few tests on a backup of your data file and > > evaluate how good or bad that works out. I'd love to hear your personal, > > first-hand experience instead of how you're currently expressing concerns > > based on what you've read. > > > > There are issues, but it's not like gnucash 3.x has suddenly become > > completely > > unusable. > > > > Regards, > > > > Geert > > > > Op zondag 25 november 2018 04:07:52 CET schreef David Carlson: > > > Paul, > > > > > > You are not the only one that concerned about whether the new releases > > > > meet > > > > > your needs any better than what you used before. A bird in hand is > > > better... > > > > > > I am staying with my favorite 2.6.15 or 2.6.17 until I am satisfied that > > > 3.4 or whatever is sufficiently well debugged to not present any serious > > > regressions for my needs. > > > > > > David C > > > > > > On Sat, Nov 24, 2018 at 4:33 PM Paul Schwartz <pmjs1...@gmail.com> > > > > wrote: > > > > I have files that contain many years of transactions [<2 MB]. Last > > > > year > > > > was > > > > done with 2.6.12 which I think provides accurate numbers. Starting a > > > > new > > > > > > computer on Windows 10, I would like to transition to 3.3 and stay > > > > current. > > > > > > > > When I open an old file and run a balance sheet I get some very > > > > strange > > > > results in my stock accounts. Some stocks are very simple: a purchase > > > > for > > > > > > cash, one transaction. Sometimes the report left justifies the amount > > > > of > > > > > > the stock and correctly reports the value of the purchase. Sometimes > > > > it > > > > right justifies the amount of the stock and reports zero for the > > > > value. I > > > > > > have looked at how the accounts are setup, and they look identical. > > > > > > > > I have other stocks that are more complex: there are simple purchases > > > > and > > > > > > then debits or credits for $ amounts with zero shares. Those are > > > > always > > > > reported with zero value. > > > > > > > > I would like to solve the simple cases first. Any help is greatly > > > > appreciated as I don't want to be frozen to using the old gnucash > > > > version. > > > > > > Paul > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > > gnucash-user mailing list > > > > gnucash-user@gnucash.org > > > > To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: > > > > https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user > > > > If you are using Nabble or Gmane, please see > > > > https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Mailing_Lists for more information. > > > > ----- > > > > Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. > > > > You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All. > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > gnucash-user mailing list > > > gnucash-user@gnucash.org > > > To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: > > > https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user > > > If you are using Nabble or Gmane, please see > > > https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Mailing_Lists for more information. ----- > > > Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. > > > You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All. _______________________________________________ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@gnucash.org To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user If you are using Nabble or Gmane, please see https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Mailing_Lists for more information. ----- Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. 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