[Kmymoney-devel] Questions about KMyMoney

[Allan]

On 19/04/12 16:37, Jack wrote:
> On 2012.04.19 09:20, Marek Laane wrote:
>> 2012/4/19 Thomas Baumgart <thb at net-bembel.de>
>>
>> > On Wednesday 18 April 2012 19:02:03 Marek Laane wrote:
>> > > > 2: There was a bunch of strings "shares set to value in split of
>> > > >
>> > > >>> transaction" or "value set to shares in split of transaction"
>> and so
>> > > >>> on. What does that exactly mean? What is set to what? Share isn't
>> > > >>> here like stock but rather like a part, is it?
>> > > >>>
>> > > >>>
>> > > >>>
>> > > >>> It looks like these are all within the consistency check. There
>> are
>> > > >>> comments in the code referring to currency, so this may refer to
>> > > >>> cases
>> > > >>> where there is a currency conversion, and the two values should be
>> > > >>> the same if they are in the same currency. I know that doesn't
>> > > >>> really help with the definition - but I think the "value" is the
>> > > >>> value of that split of the transaction, and "shares" is either
>> > > >>> really a number of shares of an investment, or else just the value
>> > > >>> on the other side of the currency conversion. I would have to
>> > > >>> understand the code better to be sure.>>
>> > > >> So you think "shares" are real shares as stock? Not shares as
>> part of
>> > > >> something? It was my first reaction, too, but the syntax made me
>> > > >> doubt...>
>> >
>> > > > I am not completely certain, but it is part of an error message
>> during
>> > > > the consistency check, so it would still lead the user to look to
>> the
>> > > > correct transaction for the problem.
>> > >
>> > > OK, let's wait to step forward somebody with deep knowledge :-)
>> >
>> > Sounds like you're calling me ;)
>> >
>> > Since we support multi-currency we have two numbers for each split in a
>> > transaction: the number of 'shares' and it's value. They are related
>> such:
>> >
>> > value = price * shares
>> >
>>> The number of shares is always kept in the currency of the account
>>> this split references whereas the value is always kept in the
>>> currency assigned to the transaction. So in case the currency for
>>> account and transaction are identical, 'value' and 'share' are
>>> identical since the price is 1.
>> >
>>> The messages you translate are caused by a consistency check. The
>>> comment says:
>> >
>> > // make sure, that shares and value have the same number if they
>> > // represent the same currency.
>> >
>>> In case the sum of all values of all splits in a transaction is zero
>>> (the transaction is balanced) the amount of shares is adjusted, if it
>>> is not, the value is adjusted.
>> >
>>> A second instance of those messages pop up where they deal with
>>> scheduled transactions.
>> >
>>> They should not pop up nowadays anymore since the application does
>>> not create 'invalid' splits anymore. They could still arise when you
>>> import from other sources though.
>> >
>>> I hope that gives enough information for you to continue your very
>>> welcome and appreciated work.
>> >
>> > --
>> >
>> Well, great thanks for thorough explanation! That was I suspected but
>> was not sure at all I do understand correctly. I just want to ask once
>> more: so "shares" here are shares as stock you can trade, not shares
>> as part of something? Because in Estonian there isn't possible to use
>> same word for both of them
>
> Given Thomas' explanation, they are not shares of stock, but not really
> "part" of anything. It is just a term used in KMM to describe how it
> handles multiple currencies. The "value" of a split of a transaction is
> the amount in the currency of the transaction. The "shares" is the same
> amount, but in the currency of the account of the transaction. This term
> was probably chosen because the "value = price * shares" is the same
> equation used for shares of stock. In this case the "price" is the
> currency conversion rate. It is using a word to describe something that
> does not really have a single word to describe it. It exists only
> because of the need to deal with multiple currencies.
>
> One thing this tells me I should expand the section in the manual on
> currency conversion to mention that transactions in an account that uses
> a different currency from the base currency are describe with the terms
> share and value (as Thomas explained above). I think the main problem
> here is that the user will never see these terms, unless the consistency
> check finds a problem. Also, as Thomas said, that should never happen
> now except possibly if there is a problem with some imported data.
>
> Finally, at least from my perspective, this means that you actually have
> some flexibility in the translation. It doesn't really matter whether
> you use the word for shares of stock or parts of a thing - as long as
> the user can tell it refers to problems with the internal data of a
> transaction. (I think even an English speaking user might be confused
> about seeing the term "share" in this context, but without using a much
> longer string for the message, I don't see any better way.)
>
> Jack

I agree with Jack.  As the average user should not be expected to 
understand the
relationship between the two terms, perhaps something like 'Inconsistent 
currency
values repaired'?

Allan