ledger/NEWS

			     Ledger NEWS

* 2.0

- The code base was rewritten for clarity and consistency.  It is now
  simpler, more robust, and faster.

- The most significant feature addition in this version is the use of
  "value expressions".  These are now used in many places to indicate
  what to display, the sorting order, and even the output format.

  A value expression is a simple string that uses one letter codes to
  indicate transaction, entry and account details.  Logic and math
  operators are supported, as well as a few useful functions.  See the
  README.

- If the environment variable LEDGER is used, a binary cache of that
  current ledger will be kept, to speed up later queries of the same
  data.  The default location is in ~/.ledger, but this can be changed
  with the environment variable LEDGER_CACHE.  This only happens if no
  "-f" flag was seen (i.e., if the LEDGER environment variable is
  used).

- New "-o FILE" option will output data to the given FILE.  If FILE is
  "-", the output is the same as the default (stdout).

- New -j and -J options replace the old -G (gnuplot) option.  -j
  reports the values column in a way gnuplot can consume, and -J
  reports the totals column.  An example can be found in
  scripts/report.

- New "-y DATEFMT" options will change the date format used throughout
  ledger.  The default is "%Y/%m/%d".

- New -Y and -W options prints yearly and weekly subtotals, just as
  the -M option printed monthly subtotals in the previous version.

- New "-z INTERVAL" allows for more flexible interval reporting.  The
  sublanguage used will probably mature over time, but for now it
  supports expression like:

    monthly
    every week
    every 3 quarters
    weekly from 12/20

  Note that when using the "from" date, this does not constrain the
  report.  It is only used for aligning report dates, for example if
  you wish weekly reporting to start on Sundays.

- Regexps specified after the command name now apply to account names
  only.  To search on a payee, use "--" to separate the two kinds of
  regexps.  For example, to find a payee named "John" within all
  Expenses accounts, use:

    ledger register expenses -- john

  FYI: The above command is identical (and internally converted) to:

    ledger -l "/expenses/|//john/" register
  
- To include entries from a file into a specific account, use:

    @ ACCOUNT
    !include FILE
    @@

  All entries specified within the "@ ACCOUNT/@@" range will be added
  under that account.

- Register reports now show the account being changed.  Use the -r
  option to see "other accounts" -- or the account the credit/debit
  came from.  (This was the old behavior in 1.x, but can lead to
  confusing reports when viewing accounts with subaccounts.)  The -r
  option also works for balance reports, where it will show all the
  account totals related to your query.

- There are several new default reporting styles, which work both in
  the balance and register reports:

    -O  Show base values (this is the default, and old behavior)
    -B  Show the basis cost of commodities
    -V  Show the last known market value of commodities
    -G  Report net gain/loss (shows commodity changes only)
    -A  Report average value (arithmetic mean)
    -D  Report deviation from the average value
    -Z  Report the trend (average rate of change)
    -W  Report the trend, with older values affecting the trend less
    -X  Report expected amount for the next transaction

- Automated transactions now use a single value expression as a
  predicate.  This means the new syntax is:

    = VALUE-EXPR
      TRANSACTIONS...

  Only one VALUE-EXPR is supported, compared to the multiple account
  regexps supported before.  By using a VALUE-EXPR as a predicate,
  matching may now be much more comprehensive and selective.

- The use of "+" and "-" in ledger files (to specify permanent
  regexps) has been removed.

- The -G switch no longer generates gnuplot-safe data.  It now reports
  totals in terms of net gain/loss.

- The -l flag now takes an expression string as a "predicate".
  Therefore, to equal the old behavior of "-l $100", you would use:

    -l AT<{$100}

- The -S flag now takes an expression string, which yields the value
  that will be sorted on.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

- Value expressions are now supported, where the totals reported can
  be changed using -t and -T and an expression string composed of:

     a    amount
     B    current balance
     T    amount total (B + a)
     c    cost
     C    cost total
     v    market value(amount, date)
     V    total market value(amount total, date)
     g    net gain (v - c)
     G    total net gain (V - C)
     d    date (in seconds past the epoch)
     i    index (within the report)
     o    item age = date - report begin date
     w    item newness = report end date - date

     b    report begin date
     e    report end date
     
  P(x,y)  market price of x at time y (i.e., V = p(A,d))
     Mx   total arthmetic of x (x/n)
     Bx   deviation = a - x
     Ax   absolute (positive) value of x
    {x}   parse x as a ledger amount
    /s/   1 if full account name matches s

  in precedence order:
    -?[0-9]*.[0-9]+ numerical constants
    binary operators: * /
    binary operators: + -
    comparison operators: = < <= > >=
    logical operators: ! & |
    (x) parenthetical grouping

  The standard reports are therefore implemented as:

    -O  ==  -t a -T A
    -B  ==  -t c -T C
    -V  ==  -t c -T V
    -G  ==  -t g -T G
    -A  ==  -t a -T MA
    -D  ==  -t a -T DMA
    -T  ==  -t a -T MDMA
    -W  ==  -t a -T MD(MA*(d-b/e-b))
    -X  ==  -t a -T a+MD(MA*(d-b/e-b))

- User-specified format strings are supported with a -F option.  The
  strings are very much like printf format strings, with the following
  syntax for each substitution:

    %?-m.MX

  Each part of the above except for X is optional, and means:

    ?  field is blank if reporting on a "subsequent line" (within
       the register report, when viewing splits)
    -  left justify field (default is right)
    m  minimum width of the field
    .  indicates that a maximum width is being specified
    M  maximum width of the field; values are truncated to fit

  And where X may be any one of:

    %              self-insert
    d              same as %[%Y/%m/%d]
    [datefmt]      pass 'datefmt' to strftime for the entry
    p              the payee
    a              the custom account name (report dependent)
    n              the real account name (balance report only)
    N              full account name (balance report only)
    t              whatever the specified value expression is
    T              whatever the specified total expression is
    (expr)         insert an arbitrary style expression

  The default format for the register and balance reports are:

    %?10d %?-.20p %-.22a %12.66t %12.80T
    %20T %-a

* 1.7

- Pricing histories are now supported, so that ledger remembers
  historical pricing of all commodities, and can give register reports
  based on past and present market values, as well as the original
  cost basis.  See README for more details on the new option switches.

* 1.6

- Can now parse timeclock files.  These are simple timelogs that track
  in/out events, which can be maintained using my timeclock tool.  By
  allowing ledger to parse these, it means that reporting can be done
  on them in the same way as a ledger file (the commodities is "h",
  for hours); and it means that doing things like tracking billable
  hours for clients, and invoicing those clients to transfer those
  hours into a dollar value via a receivable account, is now trivial.
  See the docs for more on how to do this.

- Began keeping NEWS file. :)