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Open Feature request MC-602

Poor usability when changing inputs for optimization

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Description

When you attempt to change input values for optimization, MultiCharts requires the "start value" for an input to be less than the "end value." If the start value is greater than the end value, it displays an error message: "The Save Input Value is not the descriptive of the actual issue when a person has inputted a start value that is greater than the end value."
(This error message itself is rather cryptic. It would make more sense to say something like: "Error: the start value must be less than the end value.")
The problem is that it is difficult to change an input that has a default value like "1" to something like "start value: 5" and "end value: 10." This is because if you change the start value to "5" before you change the end value to "10," MultiCharts will immediately throw up the error message about the start value being creater than the end value -- before you have time to change the end value. 
The only way around this is to perform these steps "backwards" -- to first change the end value to 10, and then change the start value to 5. This is counter-intuitive and an annoyance.
It would make more sense for MultiCharts to not validate the inputs immediately, after the user changes each value (like the start value), but instead to waiit to validate the inputs until after the user is done and hits the "OK" button. If the user has entered an incorrect range, MultiCharts could display an error message at that time. This would give the user an opportunity to change both the start value and the end value before getting an error message.

Steps to reproduce this issue

Video attached. It shows the following:
1. Select a strategy for optimization in the Portolio Backtester, and select the exhaustive backtesting option. (The same problem occurs through backtesting in MultiCharts directly, and through genetic optimization.)
2. Select an input that has default values of "start value: 1" and "end value: 1" (in this case, the input "Trend Option").
3. Attempt to change those input values to "start value: 5" and "end value: 10" by first changing the "start value" to 5 and then changing the "end value" to 10.
4. After you change the "start value" to 5 and click on the "end value" field, MultiCharts displays the error message "The Save Input Value is not the descriptive of the actual issue when a person has inputted a start value that is greater than the end value."
5. After dismissing the error message, change the end value to 10, and then change the start value to 5. This works properly, but is the reverse order that most people would expect.

Comments (1)
History
Issue basics
  • Type of issue
    Feature request
  • Category
    Not determined
  • Targeted for
    MultiCharts 9.0 (RELEASED)
  • Status
    Released
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  • Type of bug
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    user-offline.png  Xyzzy (Xyzzy)
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  • Severity
    Normal
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