On Nov 13, 7:22 am, mdipierro <mdipie...@cs.depaul.edu> wrote: > There are two issues: > - decimal would have to be supported but all backends to work properly > - decimal is not supported by Python. > Is this much complication really worth the trouble?
In my mind the problems of not having Decimal are: 1. How we show a long column of figures as 2 decimal places and guarantee that it adds up to a total? 2. If we access the DB outside Web2py, how could we guarantee the same thing? I mean we could have account balances being computed as a stored procedure. Or, reports being produced by an external reporting app. Accountants simply need to be absolutely certain that things in the DB add up consistently. Perhaps we should ask ourselves this: why does every serious database have a Decimal field type? I think that all the financial people of the world have demanded it and they use those DBs. Those that don't will use any old DB and won't be bothered if their columns don't quite add up. Your issue number 1 therefore does not seem valid. Why should accountants not be able to use Web2py just because some of the other users choose not to use a serious DB? After all, the other users probably won't even notice that their numbers have been mapped to float! How many of them have kicked up a fuss about it so far? Hardly any as far as I can see. With regards your issue 2, I'm not an expert in Python, but I'm pretty sure it will be able to add up a column of numbers from the DB accurately. However, assuming that this is indeed a real issue, I shall simply ask my serious DB to do the adding up for me instead! You ask, is it worth the trouble. Well, if you want enterprise accountants and financial people to use Web2py, I can only think that a Decimal field type will do. Finally, if you believe that a lack of demand from your user base makes you feel reluctant to address the issue, then please bear this in mind: the people that care about such things are probably not yet using Web2py because of this limitation. Enterprise frameworks should be capable of cross-balancing accounts, period. Please forgive me if I have missed any other obvious solutions to the problem. Regards, David --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "web2py-users" group. To post to this group, send email to web2py@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to web2py+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/web2py?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
