shared API for double-entry accounting, treating it as a 'math' library. (was Re: Announcing Joar Wandborg joining the project as a Conservancy contractor.)

[Bradley M. Kuhn]

Chris,

Chris Travers wrote on 27 October:
> I have gone ahead and added technical details of LedgerSMB.

Thanks for doing that!

Meanwhile, based on a previous discussion that you and had a while back,
I was thinking today about your idea of using SQL stored procedures as a
double-entry accounting engine.

Having looked a lot recently at people re-implementing, over and over,
double-entry accounting in their own way, that perhaps we should define
an API to double-entry accounting that is separated from all other parts
of an ERP and/or accounting software system.

In other words, double-entry accounting is just a form of math.  Most
math systems have a clear API that has details of how to interact with
that math system.

We should have this for double-entry accounting, too.

I put some very rough (and currently confusing) notes in:
  http://npoacct.sfconservancy.org/UseCases/StorageAPI/


I would love to define this API with input from other projects, as it
might allow us to make storage mechanisms for double-entry data more
interchangable.

What do you all think of this idea?
-- 
Bradley M. Kuhn, Executive Director, Software Freedom Conservancy