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RE: [amibroker] Re: Training and/or User Groups



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Well said Barry.

Jerry Gress
Stockton, Ca.


-----Original Message-----
From: Barry Scarborough [mailto:razzbarry@xxxxxxxx] 
Sent: Saturday, January 22, 2005 8:06 AM
To: amibroker@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [amibroker] Re: Training and/or User Groups



We need a comprehensive manual with well documented and coded 
examples with comments on each line, the more the better. And we 
need a compiler that locates the error and tells us what is wrong. 
Both of the current items fall short of what we need to write 
effective code without pulling our hair out.

I do not agree with using weekly subjects with examples within the 
context of the forum. Have you tried to locate articles on the forum 
using search arguments? It is almost impossible to find a specific 
topic and difficult at best to find what you are looking for. A 
search returns many articles, then you have to browse through them 
spending huge amounts of time and often coming away more frustrated 
than when you began. Many of the example assume you already know how 
to program within AB, bad assumption, and they are not commented 
well at all. The more terse the example the more difficult they are 
to follow. You can, and some often do, pack a lot of code on one 
line and unless you understand the language and have a block comment 
above the code telling you what is being done in human language, you 
will not follow what is being done. Examples should not do this. 

An online manual or a newer version in PDF that allows searches 
would be good. How-to subjects with examples would be much better 
than the manual we now have. The manual we now have often provides  
links to examples on their website but they are not commented well 
and many times are terse and very difficult for a newbie or even a 
programmer to understand. Finding exactly what you are looking for 
is very difficult. But that is what the forum is for. If the same 
question is asked over and over then it is a candidate for an online 
example withj comments. Examples should also have meaningful 
variable names or good comments so they are easy to follow.

Another thing that would really be helpful is a compiler that placed 
the cursor ON THE FAILING LINE with a good explanation of what the 
failure is. I often, especially when I am using for or if 
statements, I find an error at the end of the code with the cursor 
on the last line of code and saying something like "Hey you screwed 
up. He he. See if you can figure out where you made a mistake." Many 
times I have had to comment out large blocks of code trying to find 
out where the problem is. Then it is not always obvious what the 
error is. A compiler that found all the errors, listed them at the 
bottom with what the error definition is and allowing me to click on 
that line and be taken to the error line would be much better, but 
now we are talking about the diagnostic ability of a MS Visual C++ 
compiler. I double we will ever get that. But improvement could be 
made.

A comprehensive manual is what we need. Allowing users to provide 
comprehensive well document examples would be great too. Put them in 
a library on the AB site, not in the forum.

All the seminars I have attended, I am an IBM programmer and have 
attended tons of them, addressed general topics, unless they are 
weeks long. Newbies need a general, low level seminar to get used to 
the code. People who have a fairly good grasp of the language and 
how to use it would require a more comprehensive seminar, actually a 
programming class that lasts a week or more. But when you walk away 
from a seminar you had better have a comprehensive manual because 
you are not going to remember what you were taught in a month. 
Typically you lose 80% to 90% of what you are taught in three months 
unless you start using it right away and keep at it. If you go to a 
seminar and try to use what you learned a year later, forget it. You 
will be looking in the manual. 

We also need a more comprehensive description of how to use the 
Automatic Analysis tools, back tester especially. I have not figuree 
out how to use them effectively yet and I have been coding in AB for 
1.5 years. Once again, how do you set the settings? I still don't 
know how to set them for a real world experience.

Barry

--- In amibroker@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, CM TOMSON <chic195a@xxxx> wrote:
> 
> As a newbie I relate to requests for training. Attempting to sort 
through 70 postings per day, in hopes of keeping abreast of what 
problems lie ahead, and ways to head them off, coupled with 
attempting to read a 600 page manual, is a challenge. I cringe when 
an answer to a simple question is read the manual. I'm still in the 
process of doing so, and it isn't that easy.  
> 
>  I have seen many suggestions about going to Clearwater, but feel 
beginners would still be at a disadvantage, as well being out 
airfare, and hotel rates.  
> 
> The administrators and writers, and many participants are an 
educated and sophisticated lot. My hats off to you, but even among 
you, the crème of the crop, is patience tested. Novices always begin 
sentences with the fact that they are new; it seems waiting for 
their lack of knowledge to be challenged.
> 
> I realize most of those involved in amibroker are strained to the 
end. I also know that you're tired of hearing questions if the 
manual already answers that. However, as great as that manual is, 
perhaps there are lingering doubts that if I experiment, and do what 
I think the manual suggests I may actually create another problem 
that is not covered, or again ask the same sophisticated people, 
another really stupid question on how to get out of this or that.
> 
> Is it possible therefore to have a weekly subject with examples, 
and step-by-step procedures, for a particular starter topic? The 
tutorials are fantastic, and I don't mean that those instruments 
need be done, but a simple step by step approach to a common 
denominator may avoid thousands of future questions, and permit 
those of us who are less knowledgeable a chance to catch up.
> 
>  The person who started this topic stated he was at this a year, 
and still learning. This is a great program, and its expansion and 
success, also lies in new people coming in. Will these new people be 
willing to have patience for a year? If new people come in and the 
program expands, and more and more questions asked, and you have 
problems now, what happens then?  Will postings go from 70 to 200 
per day? 
> 
>  
> 
> Respectfully submitted
> 
> 
>  
> 
>           
> 
>       
> 
>   
> 
> 
> 		
> ---------------------------------
> Do you Yahoo!?
>  Yahoo! Search presents - Jib Jab's 'Second Term'






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