upgade to 2007 or stay with 2006?

If all the the above occurs at the same time then the improbable will happen and I'll most likely win the Mega Millions Lottery. Now I don't care if I can't backup my sticken QB file.

Allan gets an F.

Allan, when you understand the difference between Assembler and Machine code, maybe just maybe you'll be able to answer.

Much to your shock a large number of programs are not written in high level languages because they can't be. They aren't written in machine code either, they are written in Assembler. Assembler is a low level language. Every BIOS is written in Assembler. Almost every device driver is written in Assembler. A large number of other programs are written in Assembler. Portions of many other programs are written in Assembler. Why? Because you can't program them in high level languages because those languages don't have methods to directly interact with the hardware or where the only way to properly optimize is Assembler.

As for writing in machine code, well, if you don't have a front panel on the computer, think Altair 8080, you can't write in machine code anyway!

About those high level languages, Did you know that the GCC [Gnu Compiler Collection] compiler [most used compiler in the world] does not output machine code? No, it's output is Assembler. That output is then run through an Assembler to get to machine code. That code then needs to be run through a linker to get executable code. GCC understands [a front end is available for] C, C++, Objective-C, Java, Fortran, Ada, Pascal, D, Modula-2, Modula-3, Mercury, VHDL, and PL/I.

Allan what structured languages are you fluent in?

I know, COBOL, Fortran 66/77/G/H, Pascal, Basic, SPL 3000, APL, 6502, 8080, Z80,

Allan, stick to accounting, let us programmers teach you a thing or two about just how bad a hack slowbooks is.

Oh and just a FYI, back a few years ago I wrote an accounting system, with payroll for a mid size company. It ran off Apple ]['s (that's a 1MHz 8 bit processor!) with 40Meg of Corvus hard drive and was more responsive than slowbooks is today. They dumped a Freeden Flexowriter that had been doing the work! It's how I got into accounting.

"Golden California Girls"

I hope you'll permit a few modest corrections.

Just so we'll be clear: Assembler is machine code with mneumonics instead of numbers and variable names instead of addresses. Almost always a single assembler instructions generates one machine instruction whereas a single high-level language instruction (VB, COBOL, Fortran, etc.) generates many (sometimes thousands) of machine instructions. A high-level language may read a file thusly:

Get new-record

whereas assembler may require hundreds of instructions to accomplish the same task. That said, why do you think that VIRTUALLY ALL application programs are written in a high-level language.

They can be. Any language that's a Turing Machine can do anything any other Turing Machine language can. You CAN write a BIOS in Fortran. Assembly language is used for certain areas because it offers advantages of minimal code and efficient execution, not because assembly language is required.

The high-level languages interact with the hardware via, usually, assembler-written intermediaries.

The first program I ever wrote for an IBM-360 was in machine language. It was punched on cards and passed through an interpreter program to feed it directly into core. Consider various decompiler programs: They take machine language and convert it to assembler (sometimes an even higher language).

Most compilers operate that way. It's called multi-pass. Converting assembly language to machine language is a problem already solved. The object of a compiler is to reduce a new problem (the high-level language) to something with a known solution.

Ah, the good old days! When I started, all we had were zeros and ones, none of this new-fangled, sissy stuff. Actually, I remember working on an accounting program, for the 1130, written in Fortran.

And FYI, I own a software company and am an adjunct professor of computer science at our state's largest university. My professional opinion is that QB is not a "bad hack." It's actually pretty good.

Yes Allan understands the difference between Assembler and Machine Code. It's like the difference between petting with the bra on or off. Close but just not there yet.

No, Allan is not shocked. I am fully aware that a few highly competent programmers must first write certain code in a low level language like Assembly. I am also fully aware that a handful of programers must also wite the code for the assembly language.

I am also aware that once this basic low level code is written it is used by millions of others to develop useful programs and routines.

Why doesn't that bother me?

The only one that my clients pay me to be fluent in, English.

If you are unable to recall the names, is safe to assume that you are not proficient in those languages? Talk about being full of oneself, give me a break.

I feel humbled. I just took undergraduate/graduate courses in accounting/taxes and passed the CPA exam. I never experienced the dumping of a Freeden Flexowriter. By the way you were silent on the matter, but can we assume you wrote the accounting system in assembler? Or, perhaps, (I get goose bumps at the thought) you wrote the entire program in machine code?

Randy,

I've used Intuit products since Quicken 1.0.

I upgrade every 3 years.

Here's why:

The upgrades are:

In short, my opinion is that upgrading Quickbooks every year is pretty stupid.

I post the same thing every year at about this time.

It is amazing how reliably we find posts in this newsgroup about "the xyz function on my new Quickbooks 200x isn't working". Everyone then whines and moans about how stupid Intuit is for shipping another buggy product.

Get ahead of the stupidity curve. Don't upgrade until next year, and better yet if you have 2006, don't upgrade at all.

"Your vote is important!" Yet the more people who do vote, the LESS important your vote becomes. This is called a "self-defeating prophecy."

You've hit on another.

If everybody waited, as you suggest, then none of the bugs would be discovered by February. It would be April before we had a stable release.

Me? I'm encouraging everyone to get the new release straightaway.

Bub,

Carried out to the extreme, you would be right.

But we don't have to worry. There are enough suckers who believe the marketing materials, get messed up, and call in for tech support that they will have enough material to debug with.

Plus Allan Martin will be beating the drum to buy the next version come hell or high water.

Thats what fan boys do.