Help file or documentation file for objects?

Questions about MultiCharts .NET and user contributed studies.
bretter
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Help file or documentation file for objects?

Postby bretter » 12 Aug 2012

I would like to see the documentation on the object code. Is there a help file or documentation file that I can review prior to purchase?

MidKnight
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Re: Help file or documentation file for objects?

Postby MidKnight » 12 Aug 2012

Yes, me too. The documentation is way too scarce for me to be able to purchase this in its current form. Unless I'm overlooking things, I cannot find documentation for any PowerLanguage.Functions.* , as an example.

With kind regards,
MK

riverTrader
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Re: Help file or documentation file for objects?

Postby riverTrader » 15 Aug 2012

Look for the powerlanguage.net.chm file in the installation directory for the xmlDocs for the object hierarchy.

For those not familiar with source documentation it takes some getting used to; answering a question often requires looking through the hierarchy a bit. My suggestion is to start with an object or fn you already know.

To view all functions, look in the contents under "public functions class/public functions members. If you look up Average, you get:

PublicFunctions.Average(ISeries, Int32) Method
The function calculates the average of series values from current bar.

public static double Average(
ISeries<double> seria,
int length
);
Parameters
seria
Series values.
length
The number of elements.
Return Value
The average of series values from current bar.

See Also
PublicFunctions Class | PowerLanguage Namespace | PublicFunctions.Average Overload List

riverTrader
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Re: Help file or documentation file for objects?

Postby riverTrader » 15 Aug 2012

...On the other hand. What would be really nice would be not just documentation but a programming guide. They are harder to write (ie they don't just emit from comments).

The biggest problem I'm seeing thus far is that folks new to C# are having a hard time wrapping their minds around the transition from PL to PL.net. The real transition imo is from a scripting language to a programming language. Wrapping your mind around C# and .net is the first priority.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-US/vstudio/hh341490

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JoshM
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Re: Help file or documentation file for objects?

Postby JoshM » 18 Aug 2012

Look for the powerlanguage.net.chm file in the installation directory for the xmlDocs for the object hierarchy.

For those not familiar with source documentation it takes some getting used to; answering a question often requires looking through the hierarchy a bit. My suggestion is to start with an object or fn you already know.
Thanks for your helpful comments and links RiverTrader. Do you happen to have more tips how a beginner should approach the MC .NET 'documentation'? I tried Googling for 'how to read C# source code documentation' but that didn't turned up anything useful.

I especially have a hard time finding the correct things and how to implement these correctly.

balance
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Re: Help file or documentation file for objects?

Postby balance » 15 Nov 2012

...On the other hand. What would be really nice would be not just documentation but a programming guide. They are harder to write (ie they don't just emit from comments).


http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-US/vstudio/hh341490
Being new to multichart, coming from experiences with NT and AB, I can't agree more with this.

Multicharts people should really understand while keeping products feature rich, stable are important, good documentation is the biggest key to eventual product success.

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Henry MultiСharts
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Re: Help file or documentation file for objects?

Postby Henry MultiСharts » 15 Nov 2012

Thank you for your suggestions. They have been forwarded to our management and developers.
We will consider expanding the documentation in the future. PowerLanguage .NET Help file with description of all the functions can be also downloaded here.

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JoshM
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Re: Help file or documentation file for objects?

Postby JoshM » 07 Dec 2012

We will consider expanding the documentation in the future.
I know it's just a month later, but I was wondering if some progress has been made with this topic?

I'm not asking entirely out of self-interest, but also because recent research (summarised here) has shown that consumers like products with more non-monetary costs less. Ergo, while MC .NET offers more than its direct competitors, it might not be so appealing for prospective customers due to the lack of easy-to-understand documentation and examples.

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Henry MultiСharts
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Re: Help file or documentation file for objects?

Postby Henry MultiСharts » 20 Dec 2012

JoshM, we do plan to update .NET documentation and add more examples of the code, but cannot give you any exact ETA at the moment.

davidib
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Re: Help file or documentation file for objects?

Postby davidib » 23 Feb 2013

Hi guys,

I've just started with Multicharts but very familiar w EasyLanguage/C# and the trading space in general. Have to say that I'm very disappointed with the documentation, expected so much more. For example, the documentation in the chm file for PowerLanguage.Function is a joke, there is nothing there!

I recommended Multicharts for a client of mine. His buy/sell decision is based on me implementing a strategy of his. Sorry to say I'd not suggest MultiCharts again as it's going to take me much much longer to implement his ideas as I have to grope thru whatever bits of documentation there are. As another disappointment (not to get off subject) the Bollinger Band indicator does not natively allow a decimal number for the STDev envelope, a detailed yet big oversight in my opinion.

Overall I think MultiCharts is a good product, but the lack of key elements will render it so much less than it can be.

Thanks for listening and allowing me to post
David

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Henry MultiСharts
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Re: Help file or documentation file for objects?

Postby Henry MultiСharts » 25 Feb 2013

the documentation in the chm file for PowerLanguage.Function is a joke, there is nothing there!
Hello David,

PowerLanguage.Function is a namespace that contains all of the .Net functions and helps to distinguish between these studies and the other study types such as indicators and signals. You can open the source code of a particular function to see what it does exactly. The source code of the functions has been opened in MultiCharts 8.5 beta. You can download it from this page.


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