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[amibroker] AmiBroker 4.75.2 BETA released



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Hello,
 
A new beta version (4.75.2) of AmiBroker has just been released.
 
It is available for registered users only from the members area at:
http://www.amibroker.com/members/bin/ab4752beta.exe

(File size: 1 087 592 bytes, 1 MB)

If you forgot your user name / password to the members area
you can use automatic reminder service at:
http://www.amibroker.com/login.html

The instructions are available below and in the "ReadMe" file
( Help->Read Me menu from AmiBroker )

Highlight of this release:
  • 24-bit (Truecolor) support for indicators and exploration output (see picture below)
  • new "cloud" chart style (see picture below)
  • speed improvements
    • (AFL arithmetical / logical array operators hand optimized on assembly level providing upto +400% speed up)
    • startup time increased 10 times
  • other fixes and improvements (check READ ME below for details)

 
IMPORTANT NOTES:

  1. If you are using Firewall you may need to check if it did not block Broker.EXE file after upgrade. (It happened to some users that firewall blocked AmiBroker after upgrade and they could not connect to RT data sources due to that)
  2. If you installed 4.75.1 BETA before, after installation of this version you may see "Invalid key file. Please visit http://www.amibroker.com/lostkey.html"  in the Help->About window.
    If this happens, please either replace your key file with original one (if you have a backup) or go to http://www.amibroker.com/lostkey.html 
    to have the key sent to you.
Best regards,
Tomasz Janeczko
amibroker.com
 

AmiBroker 4.75.2 Beta Read Me

January 3, 2006 17:13

THIS IS A BETA VERSION OF THE SOFTWARE. EXPECT BUGS !!!

Backup your data files and entire AmiBroker folder first!
IMPORTANT NOTE: This version uses new system to store indicators (in separate files), so old versions will not automatically "see" indicators created with new version.

INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS

IMPORTANT: This archive is update-only. You have to install full version 4.70 first.

Just run the installer and follow the instructions.

Then run AmiBroker. You should see "AmiBroker 4.75.2 beta" written in the About box.

UPGRADE ALERT

Version 4.75.x beta requires license for v4.30 or higher. Users who registered before March 5th, 2003 (version 4.20 or older) need to purchase upgrade - in such case you will see "LICENSE EXPIRED" message in the About box.

See CHANGE LOG below for detailed list of changes.

CHANGE LOG

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.75.2 (as compared to 4.75.1)

  • when no data we available chart background is correct now (it was black instead of one choosen in prefs in 4.75.x)

  • Added ability to disable fixed ruin stop
    When you add

    SetOption("DisableRuinStop", True);

    to your formula the backtester will not use built in 99.96% loss stop (ruin) Note: it is recommended NOT to use it unless you really have to.

  • added new option to SetOption:

    SetOption("EveryBarNullCheck", True)

    SetOption("EveryBarNullCheck", True)- allows to turn on checking for Nulls in arithmetic operations on every bar in the array(by default it is OFF - i.e. AmiBroker checks for nulls that appear in the beginning of the arrayand in the end of the array and once non-null value is detected it assumes no further holes (nulls) in the middle). Turning "EveryBarNullCheck" to True allows to extend these checks to each and every barwhich is the way 4.74.x and earlier versions worked.

    Note however that turning it on gives huge performance penalty (arithmetic operations are performed even 4x slower when this option is ON, so don't use it unless you really have to).

  • Added small result summary after backtest in the status line

  • Fixed problem with plotting xshifted charts occuring when formula referenced future bars

  • logical (boolean) operators check for nulls on every bar and treat null as "false" to maintain backward compatibility with formulas written for previous versions

  • Modified file dialog buffer size from 262144 (0x40000) bytes to 262143 (0x3FFFF) to workaround 16 bit (64KB) buffer limit of Windows 95/98/NT4 (yes surprisingly NT4 is limited to 64K buffer in file dialogs)

    16-bit windows (95/98) and NT4 were treating 0x40000 as 0 (zero) because only lower 16 bits were interpreted. Thanks to move to 0x3FFFF it is now interpreted as 0xFFFF on 16 bit windows.

  • Potential crash fixed when formula using AddToComposite atcEnableInBacktest is verified in the AFL editor

  • Added XShift parameter to PlotOHLC and PlotForeign functions

  • fixed re-mapping of built-in and custom colors in grid color picker

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.75.1 (as compared to 4.75.0)

  • ParamColor now accepts 24 bit colors without crashing

  • Null values appearing at the end of data series (array) are handled appropriately (propagate through arithmetic operators)
    This fixes problem that 4.75.0 had with "trendline" formulas that used Null values put into the array at the end of the data series.

  • Most recently picked drawing tool color is preserved between runs

  • EncodeColor was not handling all 24 bit color combinations correctly. Fixed now.

  • Chart tree fix: Moving or renaming formula in charts tree now updates all paths in indicators that use this formula

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.75.0 (as compared to 4.74.6)

  • New chart style (styleCloud) to be used to create "cloud" chart as in Ichimoku charts. Also useful for indicator charts like MACD.

    This style fills non-rectangular (free shaped) area between HIGH and LOW arrays provided
    by PlotOHLC function. Open and Close arrays are not relevant for plotting however Close
    is used as usual to display value label and title. So recommended use is to use "upper" bounding value
    in Open and High arrays and "lower" bounding value in "Low" and "Close" arrays

    Sample Ichimoku cloud:

    SL = ( HHV( H, 26 ) + LLV( L, 26) )/2;
    TL = (
    HHV( H, 9 ) + LLV( L, 9 ) )/2;
    DL =
    Ref( C, 25 );
    Span1 =
    Ref( ( SL + TL )/2, -25 );
    Span2 =
    Ref( (HHV( H, 52) + LLV(L, 52))/2, -25);


    Plot( C, "Price", colorBlack, styleCandle );
    Plot( SL, "SL", colorRed, styleThick );
    Plot( TL, "TL", colorGreen, styleThick );
    PlotOHLC( 0, span1, span2, span2, "Cloud", colorLightOrange, styleCloud );

    Simple MACD cloud:

    m = MACD();
    Plot( Signal(), "Signal", colorBlue, styleThick );
    PlotOHLC( m,m,0,m, "MACD", IIf( m > 0, colorGreen, colorRed ), styleCloud );

    Another MACD cloud (difference):

    m = MACD();
    s =
    Signal();
    Plot( s, "Signal", colorBlue);
    Plot( m, "MACD", colorRed );
    PlotOHLC( m,m,s,m, "MACD", IIf( m > s, colorLime, colorLightOrange), styleCloud );

  • when File->Open database or MRU list is choosen then old database is saved first

  • When default database is deleted, AB now asks for new default database folder, instead of re-creating it

  • when database is deleted from the outside and user picks it via MRU list -then gets removed from MRU list and is not recreated anymore

  • When AmiBroker is launched with incorrect "Start in" (working directory) then it automatically switches to "last good" path

    " Last good" path is saved in the registry HKEY_CURRENT_USER\TJP\Broker\Defaults\LastGoodPath, during successful launch in correct directory (whenever working directory is correct or not it is determined by checking for presence of Broker.chm file (help file))

    Using correct working directory is important because AmiBroker uses relative paths to most components.

  • AFL: new function: StaticVarRemove()

    StaticVarRemove("varname")
    removes static variable and releases associated memory

  • Start-up time decreased significantly by implementation of on-demand loading of formulas

    (on slow, low-end machines loading time decreases from 10 seconds to just 0.5 second)

  • printf/StrFormat/SelectedValue functions no longer affect number of extra future bars calculated by QuickAFL

  • Minor plugin status change (as in IB backfill) does not cause sound (only tooltip is displayed)

  • Increased the limit of files that can be selected using Windows file dialog
    Now import wizard and ascii importer file dialogs use 256KB buffer for file names that on average should allow 20000 files to be selected at once.

  • Further speed improvements by rewriting chart ID lookup routine (GetChartInfoByID)

  • Chart title string is clipped so Y axis is never obscured

  • Chart title can be automatically wrapped now
    Use 'Parameters' window,
    " Axes & Grid" tab,
    Miscellaneous->Wrap title: YES

    If you want to set it programmatically from the formula use
    SetChartOptions( 2, chartWrapTitle );

  • Auto-hide panes slide slightly faster

  • All basic array arithmetic and logical operators inlined and hand optimized on assembly level for speed, gives upto 450% speed increase in basic array calculations

    Example speed increases:

    a) purely "theoretical" example
    million iterations of array addition
    for( i = 0; i < 1000; i++ )
     for( k = 0; k < 1000; k++ )
       Sumh =
    H + L;


    runs 4.8 times (+480%) faster (5 seconds in 4.75 compared to 24 seconds in 4.74 and older, Athlon64@xxxx)
    2000 data bars.

    This gives ( 2000 * 1000000 additions ) / 5 sec = 400 MEGAFLOPS (millions of floating point operations per second) AFL array-based AFL execution speed.

    b) "real-world" examples:
    " Projection Oscillator"
    http://www.amibroker.com/library/detail.php?id=344
    single security optimization runs 85% faster
    (13 seconds (4.75) compared to 24 seconds (4.74 or older) )

    " RSIS"
    http://www.amibroker.com/library/detail.php?id=153
    single-security optimization 5000 iterations runs 21% faster
    (28 seconds (4.75) compared to 34 seconds (4.74 or older))

    NOTE: Performance increase depends on complexity of the formula. Biggest gains can be observed for formula doing LOTS of mathematical calculations on arrays (using lots of +, -, *, /, ^, %, comparisions <, >, ==, !=, <=, >=, etc).

  • AFL: new function: SetChartBkColor( color )
    sets chart background to user-specified color

  • Added View->Time & Sales menu back

  • Added chart timing display (you can turn it on via Tools->Preferences->Display chart timing)

    when turned on, in the bottom of each chart the following information is displayed:
    Total time X sec, AFL exec time Y sec (Z %), # extra bars back Q, fwd R

    where
    X - is total time in second spent during chart refresh ( this includes AFL execution and actual screen painting/drawing, grid / scale calculations, etc)
    Y - is time spent in chart AFL execution only (without any actual screen painting, grid / scale calcs)
    Z - is percentage of time that AFL execution takes compared to total time required for refresh
    Q - is a number of previous bars (before first visible bar) that are needed to calculate the indicator (QuickAFL estimation)
    R - is the number of future bars (after last visible bar) that are needed to calculate the indicator (QuickAFL estimation)

  • Added asin/acos to the AFL function reference

  • AFL: 24-bit (16 million) truecolor support for indicators and exploration output.

  • new ColorRGB() and ColorHSB functions to access full 24 bit palette

    ColorRGB( red, green, blue )

    returns color value to be used in Plot/PlotOHLC/AddColumn/AddTextColumn
    red, green, blue - represent color component values in range 0..255 each

    For more information about RGB color model please read:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RGB_color_model

    ColorHSB( hue, saturation, brightness )

    returns color value to be used in Plot/PlotOHLC/AddColumn/AddTextColumn

    hue - represents gradation of color within the optical spectrum (as in rainbow)
    saturation represents "vibrancy" of the color
    brightness represents brightness.

    Each parameter ranges from 0 to 255, where 0 represents 0% saturation/brightness
    or 0 degree hue in HSV color wheel,
    and 255 represents 100% saturation/brightness or 360degrees hue in HSV color wheel

    When you modify hue from 0 to 255 you will see consecutive
    rainbow colors starting from red, through yellow and green to blue and violet.

    For more information about HSB color space please read:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HSB_color_space


    Example MA rainbow chart (bring up parameters dialog and play with it):

    side = 1;
    increment =
    Param("Increment",2, 1, 10, 1 );
    for( i = 10; i < 80; i = i + increment )
    {
        up =
    MA( C, i );
        down =
    MA( C, i + increment );

       
    if( ParamToggle("3D effect?", "No|Yes" ) )
        side =
    IIf(up<=down AND Ref( up<=down, 1 ), 1, 0.6 );

       
    PlotOHLC( up,up,down,down, "MA"+i, ColorHSB( 3*(i - 10),
       
    Param("Saturation", 128, 0, 255 ),
        side *
    Param("Brightness", 255, 0, 255 ) ), styleCloud | styleNoLabel );
    }


    ///////
    Color-parade exploration

    Filter=1;
    for( i = 0; i < 256; i = i + 16 )
      AddColumn( C, "C", 1.2, colorDefault, ColorHSB( ( BarIndex() + i ) % 256, 255-i, 255 ) );


CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.74.6 (as compared to 4.74.5)

  • Fixed problem with RTQuote failing to load symbol list during first show

  • Fixed problem in AA-Apply To-Date that was introduced because of tab order change

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.74.5 (as compared to 4.74.4)

  • Toolbar theme was reset when entering Formula Editor, now it is fixed

  • Quote Editor list now remembers columns size and order between runs

  • Keyboard shortcut editor now allows using punctation characters like Ctrl+[, Ctrl+], - =, etc

  • Automatic Analysis: Pick button now has shortcut on Alt+I to avoid conflict with Alt+P (Parameters), also fixed tab order

  • Fixed ParamDate to return DateNum instead of YYYYMMDD (4 digit year)

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.74.4 (as compared to 4.74.3)

  • New "Appearance" tab in Tools->Customize, allowing to select menu/toolbar/docking pane themes and tab location

  • Layout and Symbol trees are marked for refresh when database is changed and refreshed when user brings them up

  • Fixed exception that occurred after customization when ticker bar was removed from all toolbars

  • Fixed ticker bar losing focus when Shift/Insert/CapsLock/NumLock pressed

  • Real-time Quote column order/size is remembered correctly again

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.74.3 (as compared to 4.74.2)

  • Fixed losing focus by ticker combobox when Shift, CapsLock, NumLock, Insert keys were pressed

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.74.2 (as compared to 4.74.1)

  • Ticker combo is now correctly refreshed on database change even if moved to other toolbar than default

  • Previously when Reset was used on Ticker toolbar it became blank - now it is fixed, ticker combo is refilled after closing customization mode

  • Edit field in Ticker combobox does not scroll horizontally now when edited text is too long

  • Numeric keypad keys now work with File MRU menu (most recently used files)

  • Global shortcuts continue to work when focus is inside ticker combo

  • "Profile" button in View toolbar works correctly now

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.74.1 (as compared to 4.74.0)

  • Fixed incorrect message displayed in the progress window during some longer explorations

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.74.0 (as compared to 4.73.0)

  • New user interface: fully user-customizable advanced docking panes/toolbars/menus.

    New UI features:
    • Tear-Off Tabs
    • Nested docking pane grouping
    • WYSIWYG docking
    • sliding auto-hide pinnable windows
    • modern "Whidbey" look
    • Tear-Off menus and toolbars
    • Add/copy/Delete/Modify/drag-drop commands
    • User-defined toolbars


    For a little video presentation see: http://www.amibroker.com/video/uicustomize.htmlNote: toolbar and keyboard customizations made in old versions need to be re-done because they can not be imported by new system due to fundamental differences (I am sorry about that)]

  • GroupID(), IndustryID(), SectorID, MarketID(), InWatchList(), IsIndex() and IsContinuous() functions are now affected by SetForeign

  • Removed debug messages cluttering DebugView output (that appeared in 4.73)

  • Changed the way drawing color picker is working: now it works like in Word (or other text editor) - keeps selected color even if drawing with different color is clicke

  • Fixed false message "The note has been modified outside the notepad editor." occuring when file did not exist

  • OLE: Changed Window.LoadTemplate to return FALSE when file can not be found

  • OLE: Window.LoadTemplate now refreshes display so it is not necessary to use SelectedTab = 0

  • Removed constant RT refreshes in interpretation window when text does not change

  • ZoomToRange: last selected bar in range is visible after zooming now

    CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.73.0 (as compared to 4.72.1)

    • OLE: Window object, new method ZoomToRange( From, To )
      ZoomToRange( From, To )
      From and To parameters are of any type that can be converted to date(you can use string or OLE date for example).

      Example code (JScript):

      AB=new ActiveXObject("Broker.Application");
      AW = AB.ActiveWindow;
      if( AW.ZoomToRange( "2005-04-01", "2005-08-01" ) )
      {
         WScript.Echo("Zoom successfull" );
      }

    • Fixed: Chart got shrinked a bit with each overlaid plot, now the Y scale does not change (unless really needed)

    • Fixed: XShift now works correctly with styleOwnScale and styleLeftScale

    • Fixed: Volume chart overlaid on price chart in log scale (overlay) was compressed to flat line, now it is fixed (volume chart overlay uses linear scale always)
      [#22262]

    • AFL: Added AlmostEqual function (completed: 2005-09-16)

      AlmostEqual( x, y, ulps = 5 )

      this is a helper function for comparing floating point numbers.It returns True if x and y are equal or almost equal upto defined accurracy (ulps).It is recommended to use this function instead of equality check (==) as itleads to more reliable comparisons and less headache caused by IEEE floating pointacurracy issues.

      Parameters:x, y - the numbers or arrays to be compared,Ulps stands for "units in last place" and represents maximum relative error of the comparison. Since 32 bit IEEE floating point numbers have accurracy of 7 significant digits, 1 unit in last place(ulp) represents relative error of 0.00001 %. The default value of ulps parameter is 5 which gives roughtly 0.00005% "comparison sensitivity".


      Example code:

      if( 1/3 == 0.3333333 )
      {
        printf("32-bit Floating point IEEE exact equality\n");
      }

      if( AlmostEqual( 1/3, 0.3333333 ) )
      {
        printf("Numbers are almost equal\n");
      }

      Thanks to Bruce Dawson for his fast routine.

    • Optimize() function now checks if min < max, step > 0 and checks if parameter name is not empty

    • Made Time&Sales case insensitive (when "case sensitive tickers" option is turned off")

    • OBV/AccDist/Chaikin functions adjusted to be SetForeign-aware

    • OLE: Application object new methods
      BOOL LoadLayout( filename )
      BOOL SaveLayout( filename )

      AB = new ActiveXObject("Broker.Application");
      AB.LoadLayout("C:\\Program Files\\AmiBroker\\Data\\Layouts\\Default.awl");

    • OLE: Window object new property: SelectedTab

      AB = new ActiveXObject("Broker.Application");
      AW = AB.ActiveWindow;
      tabindex = AW.SelectedTab; // read selected tab
      AW.SelectedTab = 3; //switch to tab 3
      AW.SelectedTab = tabindex; // restore originally selected tab

    • Fixed: Exception was generated when GetRTDataForeign was called with non-existing ticker

    • OLE: Window object new methods: LoadTemplate, SaveTemplate

      AB = new ActiveXObject("Broker.Application");
      AW = AB.ActiveWindow;
      AW.SaveTemplate("Test.abt");
      AW.LoadTemplate("Test.abt");

    CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.72.1 (as compared to 4.72.0)

    • fixed out-of-memory problem sometimes occuring during scan of large (>512MB) databases

    CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.72.0 (as compared to 4.71.1)

    • " Currency" field support in ASCII importer
      added command:
      $CURRENCY USD

      and field:

      $FORMAT Name,Currency$OVERWRITE 1$AUTOADD 1]

    • Added "Additional commands" field in the Import wizard for typing any extra $- commands that are not available via checkboxes

    • Added parameter to AddColumn/AddTextColumn to control column width

      AddColumn( ARRAY, "Caption", format = 1.2, color = colorDefault, bgcolor = colorDefault, width = -1);
      AddTextColumn( "Text", "Caption", format = 1.2, color = colorDefault, bgcolor = colorDefault, width = -1 );

    • AddToComposte new flag to work when Status("action")== actionPortfolio (completed: 2005-09-09)
      new flag is called atcEnableInPortfolio

      Example:

      if( Status("action" ) == actionPortfolio )

      {
      ... Custom backtest mode here ....
      AddToComposite( some_array, "~COMPOSITE", "X", atcFlagEnableInPortfolio | atcFlagDefaults );

      }

    • AFL added: tanh(), sinh(), cosh() functions
      Hyperbolic tangent, sine and cosine function

    • AFL functions: StrToUpper and StrToLower

    • Fixed: Tick ASCII import: last tick of previous import was deleted on subsequent import, now it is corrected

    • Function to detect mouse button state

      GetCursorMouseButtons() returns mouse button state at the time when chart formula is executed

      0 - if no mouse button is pressed
      1 - if left mouse button is pressed
      2 - if right mouse button is pressed
      4 - if middle mouse button is pressed

      plus combinations:3 - left + right5 - left + middle6 - right + middle 7 - left + right + middle]

    • GetRTDataForeign (retrieving values for other symbols)
      GetRTDataForeign( "field", "symbol")

    • Pane is not deleted if shrinked down to zero (prevents from accidential deletion of panes)

    • Plot function now has xshift parameter that allows to visually shift the chart past the last bar
      Example 20-bar Moving average shifted 10 bars into the future past the last bar:

      Plot(Close,"Close",colorBlack,styleCandle);Plot(MA(Close,20), "Shifted MA", colorRed, styleLine, Null, Null, 10 );

      Note that shift occurs during plotting and does not affect source array

    • Removed data source selection from preferences because it caused user confusion way too often

    • Stock.Currency available via OLE

    • Title variable now supports new special token {{OHLCX}} which is replaced at runtime by string "Open ..., Hi .... Lo ... Close (...%)" showing current price

      This way it is possible to implement formula that will show OHLC prices with number of decimal places set in the preferences.

      Example:

      SetChartOptions(0,chartShowArrows|chartShowDates);
      _N(Title = "{{NAME}} - {{INTERVAL}} {{DATE}} {{OHLCX}} {{VALUES}}" );
      Plot( C, "Close", ParamColor("Color", colorBlack ), styleNoTitle | ParamStyle("Style") | GetPriceStyle() );

    • user-definable number of decimal places in chart titles (completed: 2005-09-09)
      Number of decimal places displayed in default chart title is now user-definable inTools->Preferences->Miscellaneous"Decimal places in chart titles".

      Allowable values:
      -1 - dynamic mode (number of decimal places automatically adjusted)
      0..6 - fixed number of decimal places

    • QuoteArray resizing now uses heuristic algorithm to minimize memory fragmentation and increase performance

    • atcFlagDeleteValues now highlighted properly in the AFL editor

    CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.71.1 (as compared to 4.71.0)

    • fixed compatibility problem with AmiQuote (due to changed order of OLE properties/method while AmiQuote was using old ones)
    • now ASCII importer in $TICKMODE does not delete quotes older than oldest (first) record in the imported file, so you can safely import tick data from subsequent files (older first, newest later)

    CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.71.0 (as compared to 4.70.5)

    • AFL: added GetCursorXPosition() and GetCursorYPosition() functions

      Functions return current mouse cursor position.
      Values returned are equal to those visible in the status bar, and these functions require status bar to be visible. Returned values represent cursor position at the formula execution time (or few milliseconds before it) and accurracy is subject to pixel resolution of the screen (first cursor position is read in screen pixels (integer) and then converted to actual value therefore for example when screen resolution is 1024x768 maximum obtainable resolution in X direction is 0.1% and in Y direction 0.13%), also X values are snap to datetime of nearest data bar.

      It only makes sense to use these functions in indicator/interpretation code.

      Using them in AA window may yield random values.GetCursorXPosition() function returns X position in DateTime format (the same as used by DateTime() function).You can convert it to string using DateTimeToStr() function.GetCursorYPosition() returns Y position (as displayed in Y axis of the chart).


      Example:


      ToolTip="X="+DateTimeToStr(GetCursorXPosition()) +"\nY="+GetCursorYPosition();

    • AFL: added DateTimeToStr() and StrToDateTime() functions

      These functions allow to convert string to datetime format and vice versa.


      Example:

      ToolTip="X="+DateTimeToStr(GetCursorXPosition()) +"\nY="+GetCursorYPosition();]

    • Added ability to store charts as .GIF (in addition to PNG)

    • ASCII importer maximum supported line length is increased to 2048 characters

    • Fixed: .aflsafe files didn't get deleted automatically

    • Added N-volume bars charts and timeframe support.

      Custom N-volume bar intervals are definable (as usual) in Tools->Preferences->Intraday.

      TimeFrame functions were also extended to support N-volume bars using new TimeFrameMode() function calling

      TimeFrameMode( 0 );

      - switches time frame functions to time-based operation (the default)

      TimeFrameMode( 1 );

      - switches time frame functions to N-tick operation (positive values passed to TimeFrameSet are treated now as N-tick)

      TimeFrameMode( 2 );

      - switches time frame functions to N-volume bar operation (positive values passed to TimeFrameSet are treated nowas N-volme bars)


      Example:

      TimeFrameMode( 2 );
      TimeFrameSet( 50000 ); // 50'000 share bars..
      ...do something ...
      TimeFrameRestore();


      Note: N-volume bars are somewhat weird (compression of data to N-volume bar may actually deliver MORE output bars - for example if one tick is 1000 shares and you have specified 100V bars then single tick will be expanded to TEN 100V bars - ten times original size)
      TimeFrame functions are protected against array overrun and will not decompress beyond original array size (you will get an "Error 47. N-volume bar compressed data longer than base time frame").
      Also switching main time frame to some weird N-volume bar value will result in limiting the output to maximum twice original data size(without error message).
      You should keep that in mind and avoid using too small N-volume bar intervals that could lead to such condition.
      Also due to the nature of N-volume bars the only TimeFrameSet() function will yield correct N-volume bar values, TimeFrameGetPrice() may give slightly distorted results.
      It is also possible to use n-volume bars in TimeFrame functions without calling TimeFrameMode() - it is then necessary to specify n-volume bars as negative number offset by -1000000 (minus one million):

      TimeFrameSet( -1000000 - 2000 );

      // gives 2000V barsSimilarly formatted negative numbers will be reported by Interval() function when n-volume bars are selected.

       

    • OLE: Save As PNG / GIF callable from automation

      Example script:

      AB = new ActiveXObject("Broker.Application");
      AB.ActiveWindow.ExportImage("Test.png");

    • Plugin is not called when GetExtraData is used for symbol that has "use only local database" flag turned on, and NULL is returned instead of an error

    • Protected against changing application's current working directory by printing to file

    • Toolbar does not get wrapped when main frame window is resized

    • OLE: Analysis object has new method MoveWindow( x, y, width, height) that allows to control position and size of automatic analysis window

      AB = new ActiveXObject("Broker.Application");
      AB.Analysis.MoveWindow( 10, 10, 200, 200 );


      It has some restrictions on size: specified size can not besmaller than 10x10 pixels and can not be bigger than entire screen dimensions.
      Also when "No minimum size for resizing dialogs" box in UNCHECKED in Tools->Prefs->Misc it won't shink AA window below default size necessary to fully display all controls.

    • ASCII importer: added ability to import tick data from text files

      ASCII importer now allows tick data files to be imported.

      Tick data files consist of several records having the same timestamp.This makes it impossible to use normal import mode which assumes different (unique) timestampsfor each data row (when same timestamp is found then new data overwrites old).


      To turn on TICK mode you need to add manually

      $TICKMODE 1

      line to ASCII importer definition file.


      $TICKMODE is a special mode of importer that allows to import quotes that haveduplicate time stamps.

      It makes two assumptions:
      a) input data should come in the ascending time order (i.e. OLDER records first, LATEST records last)
      b) input data should consist of entire tick history because importer will DELETE any existing quotes (to avoid creating multiple copies of the same ticks).

      Once again: Turning on
      $TICKMODE 1
      will DELETE ANY QUOTES that already exist in the database and then will import all ticks from input data file.
      You have been warned.


      For example data files like this:

      MOL,0,20050606,162959,16400.0000,16400.0000,16400.0000,16400.0000,2MOL,0,20050606,162959,16400.0000,16400.0000,16400.0000,16400.0000,11MOL,0,20050606,162959,16400.0000,16400.0000,16400.0000,16400.0000,40


      Can be imported using the following definition file:


      $FORMAT Ticker, Skip, Date_YMD, Time, Open, High, Low, Close, Volume
      $SKIPLINES 1
      $SEPARATOR ,
      $CONT 1
      $GROUP 255
      $AUTOADD 1
      $DEBUG 1
      $TICKMODE 1


      Sometimes it happens that input files have invalid timestamps (seconds > 59).

      For example:

      MOL,0,20050606,162970,16400.0000,16400.0000,16400.0000,16400.0000,2

      Please take a closer look at first line shown in this example it has time:16:29:70 (you see 70 seconds !)

      So I had to add a special flag to the importer that works around such data errors.

      It is called $ALLOW99SECONDS 1 and will convert all records with invalid seconds (i.e greater than 59)to 59s.
      So record stamped 16:29:70 will be treated as 16:29:59

      Now for tick mode to work with such incorrect records you would need to add two lines to ASCII importer definition:

      $TICKMODE 1
      $ALLOW99SECONDS 1

    HOW TO REPORT BUGS

    If you experience any problem with this beta version please send detailed description of the problem (especially the steps needed to reproduce it) to bugs at amibroker.com



    Please note that this group is for discussion between users only.

    To get support from AmiBroker please send an e-mail directly to
    SUPPORT {at} amibroker.com

    For other support material please check also:
    http://www.amibroker.com/support.html





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