Status of Documentation

Questions about MultiCharts and user contributed studies.
User avatar
geizer
Posts: 375
Joined: 16 Jun 2008
Has thanked: 40 times
Been thanked: 38 times

Status of Documentation

Postby geizer » 30 Jul 2011

don't really like pushing the button, but what is the latest on the subject?
Remember support have mentioned before on this forum about up-to date documentation coming in the next (this?) release.

Thank you,
Pavel

JackR
Posts: 34
Joined: 28 Jan 2011
Has thanked: 5 times
Been thanked: 9 times

Re: Status of Documentation

Postby JackR » 30 Jul 2011

Pavel:

I asked the same question about two weeks ago. Was told real soon now. See this thread:

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=8929

Maybe we'll get an update.

Jack

User avatar
geizer
Posts: 375
Joined: 16 Jun 2008
Has thanked: 40 times
Been thanked: 38 times

Re: Status of Documentation

Postby geizer » 30 Jul 2011

Thanks Jack,
I'm under the impression that developer is trying to get away with series of videos. My concern, however, is whether we are going to have documented changes since the latest update of user manuals. I believe user manual goes back to 2008. Any new keywords introduced since are not documented. As the documentation stands today it creates a burden to adopt the platform for new users. It's really a time consuming process to follow the forum on the daily basis to catch all the changes , nuances, etc etc.
The series of videos is not nearly enough. Videos are good sales tools, but not a substitute for the documentation.

I would really like to see where developer stands on this serious issue.

The comments which appear on the ET is not an understatement (sorry Multicharts people: I just came accross that post and can't agree more with the opinion).
Image

Whether Multicharts likes it or not that's the reality. But the real question is how Multicharts decide to go about it?
This comment is an early sign of the problem.

Hope the Multicharts team is willing to deal with the reality rather than distorted view of that reality. And reality is: The current state of the documentation sucks. And sorry to tell you: Publishing videos is an excuse not to do the manual.

If my humble opinion counts then I would give the pdf documentation a higher priority and postpone the 64bit support.
Thanks for not shooting me. I'm just a messenger.
Attachments
et_screencapture.PNG
(68.04 KiB) Downloaded 670 times
Last edited by geizer on 31 Jul 2011, edited 1 time in total.

JackR
Posts: 34
Joined: 28 Jan 2011
Has thanked: 5 times
Been thanked: 9 times

Re: Status of Documentation

Postby JackR » 30 Jul 2011

Pavel:

It might be smart business as well. I wonder how much time and effort is spent answering queries in this forum and via on-line chat, not to mention logging into our computers and messing about for an hour or more to find a simple user mistake.

I'm sure there are a number of users who will always need help no matter how good the documentation, but there are probably a lot more that would be very happy to do work on Multicharts when the markets are closed, and with a greater understanding of what they are doing. A capability that comes with good, up-to-date documentation.

A tech writer need not be a programmer/developer to write the documentation. They need to be a user-type that understands what the program is supposed to do, and then be able to describe it so that others have that understanding. The technical writer needs access to the developers periodically, not constantly.

Documenting the new programming capabilities needs a software tech writer with the same abilities and the same developer access.

Hiring a temporary writer or two would get the documentation done and let the developers get the 64 bit version out without further delay. The outcome - customer happiness, reduced daily support requirements, and future sales growth.

Jack

DRCM
Posts: 164
Joined: 17 Apr 2011
Location: England
Has thanked: 65 times
Been thanked: 8 times

Re: Status of Documentation

Postby DRCM » 31 Jul 2011

Software which is priced by $1,500 absolutely must have detailed pdf manual. There is no doubt about it. Otherwise this business looks not seriously. Video manuals could be an extra or optional on the top of the main pdf manual. MC forum is very good idea, but it shoud be used more for technical problems and bugs identification than asking how to use MultiCharts software. There are some software with a price range between $200-$500 on the market which have very nice, detailed, over 1000 page manuals.
Btw, MC probably has never been a bug free software, but I understang it is more trading than technical analysis, backtesting or optimization software. Changes related with broker or data feed software sometimes require immediate changes in MC. In this case, I think, MC team shoud act much quicker fixing those bugs as it is directly related to our money. Bug fix releases should be immediate as new features can wait. Also, a Live Chat has to be improved, 2 hours just for logs download looks very slow not very professional.
No offence, just IMHO.
Thanks

User avatar
JoshM
Posts: 2195
Joined: 20 May 2011
Location: The Netherlands
Has thanked: 1544 times
Been thanked: 1565 times
Contact:

Re: Status of Documentation

Postby JoshM » 02 Aug 2011

Good posts - I practically agree with all of them. And still I'm hesitant to add my opinion to this thread, since I assume MC Support is working hard on the documentation and fixing software issues plus implementing new features, so it don't feel that it would be fair from me to come hard down on them.

That being said, the missing documentation is indeed somewhat annoying, though I suspect I'm an intermediate user so I hope I don't need much documentation any more. The Support Chat is outstanding, but I, as a full-time trader, don't want to wait (due to time zone differences) until Support Chat is online. Documentation, which I then can compare with my own settings in case of problems, would be a real time saver.

Perhaps the documentation is going to be replaced by the proposed Wiki (from late April, ouch), but I assume that MC Support is running behind their own schedule with this, since the Project Management also has a lot of features that are still 'not reviewed' (which in my view means no one looked at them).

Still, the available documentation is somewhat helpful and there a lot of good post on this forum - the learning curve with MultiCharts/EasyLanguage still remains a breeze compared with the learning curve from NT/C# in my opinion.


Do you guys think that perhaps we should start a own Wiki, with content and code examples from MultiCharts users? As a complementary to the existing documentation? Just a thought. :)

Regards,
Josh

User avatar
geizer
Posts: 375
Joined: 16 Jun 2008
Has thanked: 40 times
Been thanked: 38 times

Re: Status of Documentation

Postby geizer » 14 Aug 2011

The problem of obsolete manuals is not going to disappear when discussion is being pushed down the list onto the 2nd or 3rd page of the forum.


Return to “MultiCharts”