Gyle,

How can you not agree that an option that says "delete transactions" and 
doesn't in fact delete transactions isn't a bug? 

Your argument doesn't address that, it argues that the fix for that bug should 
be to remove the "delete transactions" option should be removed. But that 
wouldn't solve your straw man argument: As David T. points out you can very 
quickly delete all of the transactions in a register one at a time and 
potentially make just as much of a mess. Of course you can also make a mess 
editing transactions, so to protect you from yourself GnuCash shouldn't allow 
editing either, right?

Many industrial-strength accounting programs do that: Just like in Michael 
Novak's pen and paper days if you make a mistake you don't change what you 
wrote, you make a new entry that corrects the error. GnuCash even has an option 
that makes transactions older than a configurable number of days read-only that 
gets you most of the way there. A bit of self discipline will take care of the 
rest. But not everyone wants GnuCash to work that way and it's up to each user 
to choose the point where they trade off convenience against the risk of making 
a mess.

Regards,
John Ralls

> On Sep 5, 2023, at 14:00, Gyle McCollam <gmccol...@live.com> wrote:
> 
> John,
> for the 1st time, I have to disagree with you.  If you delete the 
> transactions when you delete an account it is not only an accounting issue, 
> but will seriously mess up your other accounts.  Say there are debits 
> (deposits) and credits (withdrawals) from your checking account.  If the 
> account your deleting has been around for years, good luck trying to get your 
> bank account to balance after those entries are gone.
> 
> Thank You,           
> Gyle McCollam
> Gyle McCollam
> gmccol...@live.com <mailto:gmccol...@gyleshomes.com>           email
> From: john <jra...@ceridwen.us>
> Sent: Tuesday, September 5, 2023 11:44 AM
> To: Gyle McCollam <gmccol...@live.com>
> Cc: Maf. King <m...@chilwell.net>; Mark <mrpen...@mailbox.org>; 
> gnucash-user@gnucash.org <gnucash-user@gnucash.org>
> Subject: Re: [GNC] Transaction inconsistency when deleting account
>  
> Yeah, it's a bug. It's supposed to delete the transactions, not just the 
> splits in that account only to recreate them in an imbalance account. 
> Otherwise it's the same as the move to account option.
> 
> The fact that it's poor accounting practice is beside the point. If the user 
> wants to follow good accounting practice they can choose to move the splits 
> to another account.
> 
> Regards,
> John Ralls
> 
> > On Sep 5, 2023, at 08:18, Gyle McCollam <gmccol...@live.com> wrote:
> > 
> > No Mark, it is not a bug.  If you made credit card purchases and subsequent 
> > payments to that card, those transactions have already been made and if you 
> > were to delete an account and the transaction within, it would be the same 
> > as if the transactions had never happened and they did.  Gnucash, offering 
> > to move them to another account is the only way not to screw up all the 
> > account affected by the account you are deleting.
> > 
> > 
> > Thank You,
> > 
> > Gyle McCollam
> > 
> > Gyle McCollam
> > 
> > gmccol...@live.com<mailto:gmccol...@gyleshomes.com>           email
> > 
> > ________________________________
> > From: gnucash-user <gnucash-user-bounces+gylemc=gmail....@gnucash.org> on 
> > behalf of Mark via gnucash-user <gnucash-user@gnucash.org>
> > Sent: Tuesday, September 5, 2023 11:04 AM
> > To: Maf. King <m...@chilwell.net>
> > Cc: gnucash-user@gnucash.org <gnucash-user@gnucash.org>
> > Subject: Re: [GNC] Transaction inconsistency when deleting account
> > 
> > 
> > Sep 5, 2023 08:33:44 Maf. King <m...@chilwell.net>:
> > 
> >> I just tried deleting an account.   As expected, I was presented with the
> >> choice to "move transactions to..." or "Delete all transactions" (see
> >> screenshot - this is GC 4.x, maybe the wording is different in v5)
> >> 
> >> Deleting the transactions does not really seem to delete anything, the
> >> transaction splits effectively moved to Imbalance-GBP.
> >> 
> >> One could argue that "splits" in the deleted account have been deleted, and
> >> GC has auto-created new splits to the Imbalance account - I don't know what
> >> the internal process is- but it "feels" to the end user like a move, not a
> >> delete.
> >> 
> >> Given a "transaction" is a collection of "at least 2 splits",  then I 
> >> think I
> >> agree with the OP, (whatever the validity of the reason for wanting to 
> >> delete
> >> an account), being told that "transactions" will be deleted and them still
> >> existing seems a bug (maybe only in wording in the dialog box)
> > 
> > Ah, it's been a while since I deleted an account, and I don't remember the 
> > option to delete all transactions being there (maybe I just forgot). I 
> > agree that is confusing at least, and maybe a bug.
> > 
> > I don't think I would ever use that option, though. That seems like a 
> > confusing side effect to have transactions deleted by deleting an account. 
> > Maybe I'm just used to the way GnuCash has done things.
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