Steve, I'm not sure I entirely agree. I'm a reasonably experienced programmer in VBA mainly. But over the years I've done all sorts right back to Pascal & 6502 assembler. I've got a logical programming type mind. However, coming over to AFL the main problem is that there is no "Beginners Guide" and there is no "Intermediate Guide" and no "Advanced Users Guide". If you were starting to code in C# tomorrow you could go onto Amazon and get exactly books that were exactly that for your chosen language. I think that's the big issue here... What we have are numerous sources - The UKB, the KB, the AFL Library, the Manual, the forum etc..etc... We effectively have a jumbled up set of sources which make up our 'Beginners guide', 'Intermediate Guide' AND 'Advanced Guide' all together.
It's no wonder people get confused. It's even confusing for people who have a decent programming background like myself. I've been programming AFL for 5 or months now and frankly I don't feel I've made the progress I should have, or would have if I'd started C# from scratch 5 months back. And it's not because I'm a dodo or lazy. --- In [email protected], "Steve Dugas" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Hi - I wonder sometimes if people might expect to install AB in the morning, port all their stuff over in the afternoon, and be up and running with whatever they want the next day... Unlikely to happen, no matter how badly you want to get back to making money. If you were learning a foreign language ( French, Japanese, whatever ) you would probably give yourself a year or so to become proficient - why would you not expect to spend some serious time to become proficient in AFL? And of course, the more time and effort you put in, the quicker you will come up to speed. When I type "tooltip" into the search box, I get about 10 hits. Just going as far as the 2nd one I see > > > Tooltip Allows you to define your own text for data tooltip > > Example: > > Tooltip = "This is my tool tip text showing close price: " + Close; > > > > That looks like a pretty basic and straightforward example... It doesn't take a huge leap of logic to think... Hmm, what would happen if I added " + Open + High + Low"? Then, what if I deleted the text part? If you are reading the docs you should probably come across the "\n" newline operator pretty quickly and then you will know how to stack them. There is no substitue for at least blowing through the entire user's guide, including all the individual functions - even a year later you will say to yourself "I seem to remember reading something about this in the docs, I will try to search for it again" When you see people like Graham, Herman, et al giving help over and over again, ask yourself "How did they get so smart"? The answer is, they got the basics from the docs, and then there is a lot of experimentation, trial and error involved sometimes to get exactly what you want.. TJ cannot possibly provide examples showing *exactly* how to do each and every idea that might pop into anyone's head. I can actually see why he gets frustrated when he *does* put examples like this right in the docs and people still say they have no help. I *have* read all the docs, and even review them once in a while to try and stay on top of new features. Once you do that, it is fairly easy to see who has put in their due dilegence and who hasn't... > > Steve > ----- Original Message ----- > From: lou > To: [email protected] > Sent: Thursday, August 28, 2008 11:58 AM > Subject: Re: [amibroker] Re: The best way to help newbies, oldies, ... and AmiBroker ... > > > Fred - > > If you'll pardon a "beginner's" comments, It really doesn't matter where Brian or Allan want to go only that they can go where ever they want. To do that they (and I) need to be able to find and understand the existing tools. To use the "Tooltips" example, I would not have been able to find the information given by TJ and would still be wondering why the check box didn't work (and still am). This has been a problem since the beginning of AB but the program itself changes so fast that by the time a manual is written, it is outdated. Don't know what the answer is, hope you do. Guess it is time for some creative thought. > > regards, > lou howard > =========================================================== > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Fred Tonetti > To: [email protected] > Sent: Thursday, August 28, 2008 9:28 AM > Subject: RE: [amibroker] Re: The best way to help newbies, oldies, ... and AmiBroker ... > > > Brian / Allan, > > > > While I'm not particularly fond of answering questions with questions the reality is that in order for anyone to answer questions like the very general one you posted they'd need to know where it is you are trying to go . > > > > If you've read Howard's book and that isn't in the direction you want to go i.e. system design and testing then what direction do you want to go in ? > > > > Are you a visual type i.e. are you only interested in indicators and line drawing capabilities etc ? or ? > > > > Fred > > > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > From: [email protected] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of matrix10014 > Sent: Thursday, August 28, 2008 11:09 AM > To: [email protected] > Subject: [amibroker] Re: The best way to help newbies, oldies, ... and AmiBroker ... > > > > Brian, > Thank you for simply cutting to the chase.Until the AFL issue is > adequately addressed,a large percentage of us wil be caught in an > enedless data loop. > > Allan > > "What I am saying is that I think we are making it harder by not > admitting that it is a programmers program and just getting on with > teaching AFL. > > I came to realise it is all about programming - > specifically AFL. > > So, if I do want to get on with it where do I go" > > > > > > > brian_z > > > > > > > > > > --- In [email protected], "brian_z111" <brian_z111@> wrote: > > > > > > Herman, > > > > > > >I always figured that sticking with AFL would have provided a > more > > > >continuous path for users to develop their programming > expertise. > > > > > > This is a new point, not really discussed much before, I think. > > > > > > I really don't know how to put it in words but you are so right. > > > > > > Tomasz should be proud of me because if I am a programmer at all > I > > am > > > an array programmer...... but sometimes I am left reaching for > AFL? > > > > > > Perhaps there are conventions that people with 2 or more > > programming > > > languages automatically understand? > > > > > > Do I have to go and learn C++ as well. > > > > > > Should I need too? > > > > > > brian_z > > > > > > > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > I am using the free version of SPAMfighter for private users. > It has removed 535 spam emails to date. > Paying users do not have this message in their emails. > Try SPAMfighter for free now! >
