Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

Agree, but I think it's ok if cool stuff is posted again every so often. There are always people who didn't see it last time around.

It's funny, I found ledger to be WAY easier to learn and use than QuickBooks, which just completely baffled me. Yet QuickBooks is the leading system for small business.



I haven't used QuickBooks, but I think most people would stop at "open the terminal". Probably even my partner, and she is running Debian. That said, it turns out that a flexible custom text file format, combined with well thought-out concepts and powerful commands, blows out of the water most widget-heavy UIs in terms of ease of use. It's unfortunate that more people don't realize it.

Of course, the stellar documentation helps too.


> That said, it turns out that a flexible custom text file format, combined with well thought-out concepts and powerful commands, blows out of the water most widget-heavy UIs in terms of ease of use. It's unfortunate that more people don't realize it.

I think more people "don't realize it" because "ease of use" is subjective rather than objective, and for many people, a custom text file format, even combined with well-thought out concepts and powerful commands, doesn't blow widget-heavy UIs out of the water.


The problem is usually when you have to give your books to your accountant / tax preparer, and not using the standard is painful.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: