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Hello,
Herman is doing us all a great service with his UKB posts about
overlay plotting using GFX functions, creating button like functions,
and chart trading. Thank you Herman!
I have given a lot of thought about the plotting features of AB and
how to best use those capabilities in my charts. I have also run into
a number of situations that I could not figure out how to do it.
Looking over the AB suggestions list, many are related to increasing
the capabilities of plotting functions. When Tomasz released the GFX
low level plotting functions and recently (beta) some additional mouse
functions, many more possibilities opened up. Thank you Tomasz!
Now, I am trying to take stock of where I am at relative to things I
have wanted to do for a long time. Perhaps a few more functions are
needed to realize these, or perhaps there is already a way to do what
I want. Here are some of the things I would like to do. Please
comment on any of them --especially if you know a way to do them now
or can think of a better approach as a suggestion. I am also sounding
out my understanding of this area, so please correct me where I have a
misconception.
Plotting from AFL on GFX layers:
So far, the only way I know of to plot on layers from AFL, other than
the default chart layer is using the PlotShapes() function. The
layers seem to be only used for manual study plots. Layers are locked
in step with the time scale of the chart, so they align and scroll
with the chart. Layers do not erase their plots except by manual
command. I suppose that the ability for PlotShapes() to plot on
layers, is so that AFL can interact with manual cursor selections to
mark certain events on the chart permanently. One suggestion I saw
was for a drag and drop symbol pallet to manually place these.
The GFX functions plot to special GFX only layers --Currently we have
one layer above the chart plots and one layer below the chart plots.
These GFX layers are pixel oriented, and are not aligned to the chart
time scale.
What I would like to be able to do is:
1. Plot with GFX functions to a layer above all other layers
(Foreground) and a layer below all other layers and the chart layer
(Background).
2. GFX plots to each layer should remember their plots between AFL
passes and only clear a layer when plotting first time again in a new
AFL pass.
3. GFX plots should not cause the chart plots to clear.
Why would I like these?
First, I currently generate some informational cell and button plots
with GFX functions. I can plot them above the chart, but not above
the other layers that have my tend lines, etc. This creates problems
reading the text in the cell or button, and potential problems
selecting line elements running over the buttons. Even if future
versions of AB allow more control over the chart area so there is more
room for these informational displays, the regular layers still
currently cover more than the chart plot area. Herman has shown us
how to create essentially pull down buttons running along the top of
the chart. These buttons need to be plotted above everything else for
a clean interface.
Second, I can speed up my AFL processing (and I do a lot of
processing), if I am able to only recalculate (and re-plot) on a new
bar (re-plotting the last bar only in a GFX layer). However, I still
want to plot and interact with the GFX layer buttons in the mean time.
Plotting order for normal chart plots:
Something that is on the AB to do list is having more direct control
over the plot order in charts. The difficulties of this have been
discussed before on this list. One possible strategy is to extend
this idea of the GFX plot layers to a more general case. For instance
if there were 8 or 16 layers that could be specified for the target of
a plot. Within a layer, the plots would operate the same as currently
is the case. However, selecting a different layer would result in the
ability to plot above or below a previous plot command without regard
to its placement in the AFL formula.
One AFL command could serve for selecting the plot layer for
subsequent plot or GFX commands (internally they do not have to be the
same layer). For example: PlotLayer(5); Plot(...);
The nice thing about this approach is that it would be completely
backwards compatible with the default layer.
Please offer your insights.
Can you think of other uses for this approach?
Do you have a different approach that would work?
Best regards,
Dennis
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