Spanish traders set the standard for GnuCash database design • Hacker News Board

Re: Spanish traders set the standard for GnuCash database design

#41

Post by noja » Mon, Jun 08, 2026, 2:36 PM UTC

vitalikpie wrote: post #33

gus_massa wrote: post #28

Side question: I'm surprised by the explanation of the 8 in the "real de a a ocho" because " traders counted gold doubloons on their fingers, skipping their thumbs. " (and the link to investopedia has a similar explanation). But from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doubloon > Spanish American gold coins were minted in one-half, one, two, four, and eight escudo denominations, with each escudo worth around two Spanish do…

Yeah, I thought about it when I first saw the coin cut into pieces - https://www.pirateglossary.com/glossary/pieces-of-eight But then why didn't they cut it into 10 pieces - https://etc.usf.edu/clipart/40600/40610/pie_01-10a_40610.htm ?

Easier to cut into halves?

Re: Spanish traders set the standard for GnuCash database design

#42

Post by vitalikpie » Mon, Jun 08, 2026, 2:38 PM UTC

bitwize wrote: post #38

ponyous wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Surprisingly written by a human :) Article ends with this

Yeah, I got an AI vibe off it too, and was surprised to find this. The problem is, to quote Orson Welles, "it's not as conversationally written. It's full if things that are only correct because they're grammatical, but it's tough on the ear, you see." AI writing bears a resemblance to the most insufferable marketing speak, so if you ape that kind of writing in an attempt to sound punchy or whatever, you're going to…

I think it's because thought-process is done in Russian, translated into English and the checked for grammar mistakes with Grammarly.

Re: Spanish traders set the standard for GnuCash database design

#43

Post by bgribble » Mon, Jun 08, 2026, 2:40 PM UTC

I committed to the GnuCash codebase pretty regularly in the 1999-2002 era... I think maybe I actually implemented the fractional representation that the article discusses? Not sure, it was a long time ago! I definitely remember receiving some very heated emails about how this was total nonsense and there was no reason to do anything other than a decimal representation. The phrase "a superhighway of abstraction, leading nowhere" has stuck with me for lo these many years :) good times

Re: Spanish traders set the standard for GnuCash database design

#44

Post by bitwize » Mon, Jun 08, 2026, 2:41 PM UTC

vitalikpie wrote: post #42

bitwize wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I got an AI vibe off it too, and was surprised to find this. The problem is, to quote Orson Welles, "it's not as conversationally written. It's full if things that are only correct because they're grammatical, but it's tough on the ear, you see." AI writing bears a resemblance to the most insufferable marketing speak, so if you ape that kind of writing in an attempt to sound punchy or whatever, you're going to…

I think it's because thought-process is done in Russian, translated into English and the checked for grammar mistakes with Grammarly.

That would explain a lot. Grammarly went full LLM brainrot a few years back, so if you rely on its suggestions your writing will... sound a certain way.

Re: Spanish traders set the standard for GnuCash database design

#45

Post by vsviridov » Mon, Jun 08, 2026, 2:43 PM UTC

abdullahkhalids wrote: post #15

I would like to use finance tracking products like GNUCash. But I don't have the patience to download the csv for half a dozen accounts every month (Products like plaid are a no go from a basic security perspective). I am in Canada, and there seems to be no hope that I will have API access to my bank accounts anytime soon. Also, did I mention how much it annoys me that the transaction description differs between the…

I'm using self-hosted Sure.am and also using SimpleFin to connect to Canadian banks. It works, but barely, since it effectively scrapes with no real API access. I have to login daily to update 2-FA on various accounts, and have suffered account lockouts a couple of times, due to "suspicious activity".

But it still beats downloading multiple exports from the bank and importing it manually...

Re: Spanish traders set the standard for GnuCash database design

#46

Post by internet_points » Mon, Jun 08, 2026, 2:48 PM UTC

vitalikpie wrote: post #26

gostsamo wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your title promises a story about the spanish traders. It does not deliver, but talks about 3 other different topics that I'm not interested in and jumping between them to test my nerves. If it is about the architecture of whatever you are doing, put the architecture in the title and don't make your title an offhand comment somewhere there. Fucked up clickbite.

Yeah, sorry. It's kind of intentional. Did not want to give it a boring name like "Storing fractions vs decimals".

Don't be. Keep writing! Boring people gonna be boring. I for one found it a fun article with a great title, and I also liked your other https://handson.money/blog/2026-05-20-ai-coding/

Re: Spanish traders set the standard for GnuCash database design

#47

Post by vitalikpie » Mon, Jun 08, 2026, 2:53 PM UTC

bgribble wrote: post #43

I committed to the GnuCash codebase pretty regularly in the 1999-2002 era... I think maybe I actually implemented the fractional representation that the article discusses? Not sure, it was a long time ago! I definitely remember receiving some very heated emails about how this was total nonsense and there was no reason to do anything other than a decimal representation. The phrase "a superhighway of abstraction, leadi…

Thanks for the info! But did you guys thought about fractional commodities those days? Or was it clear that it is going away?

Re: Spanish traders set the standard for GnuCash database design

#48

Post by vitalikpie » Mon, Jun 08, 2026, 2:55 PM UTC

bitwize wrote: post #44

vitalikpie wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's because thought-process is done in Russian, translated into English and the checked for grammar mistakes with Grammarly.

That would explain a lot. Grammarly went full LLM brainrot a few years back, so if you rely on its suggestions your writing will... sound a certain way.

I'm using a free version, so if an LLM suggestions slipped in - it only a couple of them.

Re: Spanish traders set the standard for GnuCash database design

#49

Post by bregma » Mon, Jun 08, 2026, 2:57 PM UTC

abdullahkhalids wrote: post #15

I would like to use finance tracking products like GNUCash. But I don't have the patience to download the csv for half a dozen accounts every month (Products like plaid are a no go from a basic security perspective). I am in Canada, and there seems to be no hope that I will have API access to my bank accounts anytime soon. Also, did I mention how much it annoys me that the transaction description differs between the…

Well, there is legislation before Committee to mandate open APIs that any accredited institution can use. As a consumer you will not be eligible, but you will be allowed to pay some third-party to pull your data from your bank and save it in their database, after which maybe they might allow you to download it in their proprietary format should they choose.

Me, I use plain-text accounting (hledger) that automatically imports the CSVs from my bank and categorizes transactions automatically, and I wrote some quick scripts using Python to import the PDFs from my brokerages and paystubs. It's not automated pulls but I only have a handful of accounts so it's really not a pain to manually pull statements once a month and run the import scripts. It takes me longer to reconcile everything to the penny then it does to do the imports, and it's a whale of a lot faster than manually entering through GNUCash. Plus, it's plain text so all you need is vim, git, and the command line.

Re: Spanish traders set the standard for GnuCash database design

#50

Post by jrm4 » Mon, Jun 08, 2026, 3:00 PM UTC

vitalikpie wrote: post #8

gostsamo wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A true surprise if so, but still low in informational density and annoying to read.

huh, sorry I'm really bad at writing - this is one of my first attempts

You're not. You're not bad at all. Please ignore the negatives here, they're certainly more a result of AI paranoia/fatigue than meaningful criticism.

Anyone reading this and who is complaining that it's too long and content-light? Respectfully, you really need to check yourselves, you're probably the one with the "internet brain" dopamine or whatever problem. This is NOT an unreasonable amount/style of words for what is said.