Herman, To get newbies to stick with AmiBroker and become contributing members to 'our community' they have to get started. We can all help them here by being patient, tolerant, and courteous. The quickest way to get them started is to provide working examples, not to discourage them in any way. A stupid question is better than no question. Amibroker is no longer simple to learn; very complex applications are discussed everyday and the beginner doesn't know what is native to AmiBroker or what requires special expertise.
Very well said! I agree completely with this, and many of your other points as well. I will add that I see purchasing a good book as something that certainly is well-within the current competence of even the rankest beginner. I 2nd the recommendation for all AB beginners to go directly to Howard's book "Quantitative Trading Systems". Also, if a user provided a good answer this should be extracted from the list and posted on the one of the Knowledge bases. I do a bit of this here <http://codefortraders.com/phpBB3/viewforum.php?f=38> at CFT, as time allows. I think of this area as a notebook to myself that also happens to be open to the public for reading or contribution. If the volume ever grows to the point where more organization is desirable (e.g. categories for 'Charts', 'Optimization', etc.) that is also relatively easy to do, and I am a volunteer for that particular work item when the time comes. I have seen other communities where an extensive index into message-based source material has been compiled by a dedicated user(s). I think that's how it would have to happen, as this sort of archival detective work is not the best use of TJ's time, nor does the current cost structure of AB support hiring paid help to do it. If one or a couple people were to step up to this, perhaps TJ would agree to privately indulge their questions about what AB features/behaviors have been superceded or deprecated. This would help short-circuit efforts to memorialize material that is meant to rest-in-peace. I wholeheartedly agree that runnable examples rule! IMO, best education online happens when a ready-to-run file is posted with: a) picture(s) of what it does b) comments in the code c) extra explanation in the message for full clarification The UKB shows the power of this, as do the postings at CFT. Are there others out there? BTW, sometimes the defacto online partnership works wonders, educationally. This happens when a complex example is posted without non-existent "extras", which may then sometimes be supplied by others for presentational/educational purposes. Thanks again to Herman (and others) for your thoughtful posts!
