I am pleased to announce the next alpha release of ``CBB'', a check
book balancing program written specifically for Unix.  It is
implemented in two parts.  The data base ``engine'' is written in Perl
and the graphical front end is written in Tcl/Tk.

It is available at ftp.me.umn.edu:/pub/finance/cbb-0.51a.tar.gz
It should also be available someplace on sunsite before too long.

The primary changes from the last release are:

    - Transfers between accounts.  (Provided by Chris Browne & Curt
      Olson)

    - A manual!  (Written in TeX)

    - Some simple reports.

    - A text based front end.  (Provided by Christopher Browne)

    - Online, hypertext help.  Thanks to Jun Luo <junluo@cs.wisc.edu>
      and Liem Bahneman.  This is done via a program called latex2tkhlp 
      which quickly generates a tk hypertext help function from a latex 
      file.  latex2tkhlp has a ways to go, but so far is very cool.

    - Data is now stored in dbm files.  (With an easy conversion
      procedure from the previous file format.)

    - Logging of transaction changes.  Theoretically if the data base
      file is corrupted, it could be reconstructed from the log.

    - Dates represented by four digits instead of two.  This means cbb
      will break in the year 10000, not in the year 2000.

I consider this software to still be in the ``alpha'' stage.  There is
quite a bit of work left to be done, but since the package is
progressing nicely, I have been releasing it to the net.  Hopefully
others will be able to find it as useful as I do.

I embarked on this project primarily because I was incredibly sick of
having to reboot my Linux machine just to run windows and Quicken.
(Now don't get me wrong, Quicken is not a bad program, but I hated
having to stoop down to ``window's'' level in order to keep track of
my money.)

Since I am in the process of developing this software, I welcome all
questions, comments, suggestions, complaints, assistance, etc., etc.

I am including the ``README'' for those who are interested in further
details.


=======================8<====README=====8<============================


The Check Book Balancer -- by Curtis Olson  (curt@sledge.mn.org)

The latest version is always available at:

    ftp.me.umn.edu:/pub/finance/cbb-[version].tar.gz

Note, this program requires specifically:  perl 4.036 (or 5.000) and tk 3.6
(or 4.??).  If you run Linux/Slackware installing the perl (d-series), and 
the tcl (tcl-series) packages should satisfy this requirement.  Note: the 
perl pieces seem to run just fine under Perl5.  Note also, the tk bits
seem to run fine under tk 4.???

Here is a quick run down of the current features:

    * No more dependency on tclX ... works with standard tk.

    * Transfers between accounts.  (Provided by Chris Browne & Curt Olson)

    * A manual!  (Written in TeX)

    * A text based front end.  (Provided by Christopher Browne)

    * Some simple reports.

    * Online, hypertext help.  Thanks to Jun Luo <junluo@cs.wisc.edu>
      and Liem Bahneman.  This is done via a program called latex2tkhlp 
      which quickly generates a tk hypertext help function from a latex 
      file.  latex2tkhlp has a ways to go, but so far is very cool.

    * Data is now stored in dbm files.  (With an easy conversion procedure
      from the previous file format.)

    * Logging of transaction changes.  Theoretically if the data base file
      is corrupted, it could be reconstructed from the log.

    * Dates represented by four digits instead of two.  This means cbb
      will break in the year 10000, not in the year 2000.

    - Ability to import *and export* quicken export files.  This feature
      has not been extensively tested, but should provide the ability
      to move back and forth freely between quicken and ``Cbb''.

    - Ability to enter transactions.  Automatically calculates the running
      balance.

    - Some input accelerators.  i.e. +/- in the date and check # fields work
      as in quicken.  Category completion:  type the first few characters of 
      the category, and the rest will be filled in from the category list.

    - Entry field keyboard bindings!

    - Better category handling.

    - Memorized transactions to speed entry.

    - Simple, but functional undo.

    - Ability to handle ``quicken style'' splits.

    - Balancing:  Ability to enter a statement starting/ending balance, select 
      uncleared transactions, verify start balance + transactions = end balance,
      then clear all selected transactions.

    - An install script.

Planned features (future work)

    - Include many more error/sanity checks.

    - Interactive category editor ... right now you must use a text editor :)

    - Generate more reports.

    - Work on increasing performance.

    - Clean up a lot of things ... certain traditional interface things act 
      funny or aren't included yet.

    - A more sophisticated multilevel undo?

Things that would be nice but are far in the future (probably)

    - Ability to manage budgets.

    - Ability to handle recurring transactions

    - Ability to handle investment accounts

    - Double accounting ???

    - ??? ... The possibilities are endless :)


PREREQUISITES
=============

Tcl & Tk is available via anonymous ftp from:
   ftp.cs.berkeley.edu:/ucb/tcl/[tcl7.3.tar.Z tk3.6.tar.Z]
   ftp.neosoft.com:/pub/tcl/distrib/[tcl7.3.tar.gz tk3.6.tar.gz]
   ftp.uu.net:languages/tcl/[tcl7.3.tar.Z tk3.6.tar.Z]

Perl is available via anonymous ftp from:
   prep.ai.mit.edu:/pub/gnu/perl-4.036.tar.gz
   ftp.cs.umn.edu:/pub/gnu/perl-4.036.tar.gz


INSTALLATION
============

Type "make install"
Answer the questions.


Let me know what you think!!!  Thanks,

Curt.
--
Curtis Olson   E-mail: curt@sledge.mn.org
               WWW:    http://www.me.umn.edu/1/home/clolson          .
Try Linux!     Phone:  (612) 626-9800                            \__[0]__/
