AmiBroker 5.86.0 BETA Read Me

October 11, 2014 10:32

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

Backup your data files and entire AmiBroker folder first!

INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS

IMPORTANT: This archive is update-only. You have to install full version 5.80 first.

Just run the installer and follow the instructions.

Then run AmiBroker. You should see "AmiBroker 5.86.0 BETA" written in the About box.

See CHANGE LOG below for detailed list of changes. Note that only changes that affect end-user directly are listed here. Internal code changes/refactoring is usually not mentioned.

CHANGE LOG

CHANGES FOR VERSION 5.86.0 (as compared to 5.85.0)

• AFL Editor: repeat replace + wrap around restarts only once and if no further matches/replaces are found it displays "no more matching texts" instead of restarting again.
• AFL Editor: when user closed Find&Replace dialog and then pressed F3 (find next) a couple of times to pass thru the end of document a crash could occur. Fixed.
• Analysis: HTML report generator - settings page used </TD> tags to close some <TH> tags which is formally incorrect, even if it works. Fixed.
• Charts: Extreme descenders in text could be truncated (by one pixel) in multiple line Title strings. Fixed.
• HTMLView - Backtest report viewer - added Edit/Copy, Edit/Select All and Edit/Copy TABLE. The last command transforms HTML tables into CSV format and copies it into clipboard so tables can be pasted easily to Excel. Also it divides Entry/Exit columns into separate Entry/exit date/price columns
• Parameter window: mouse wheel scroll is now supported
• Realtime Quote window: added Bid/Ask trend - a graphical indicator showing the direction of 10 most recent changes in real-time bid/ask prices
  The right-most box is most recent and as new bid/ask quotes arrive they are shifted to the left side. Color coding is as follows:
  Dark green: bid > previous bid OR ask > previous ask
  Bright green: bid > previous bid AND ask > previous ask
  Dark red: bid < previous bid OR ask < previous ask
  Bright red: bid < previous bid AND ask < previous ask
  Red / Green box: ask < previous ask AND bid > previous bid
  Green / Red box: ask > previous ask AND bid < previous bid
  
  If bid/ask prices don't change there is no new box.
  NOTE: This column works only if there are real-time quotes streaming (markets are open)
  
• Realtime Quote window: Sorting by Full name column did no work. Fixed
• Report Explorer: Column layout (order and sizes) is now saved and restored between runs
• Report Explorer: Loading and refresh performance significantly improved (5x) using owner draw/ virtual mode
• Report Explorer: Multi-column sorting implemented
• Report Explorer: Numeric columns are now right aligned for better readability
• Report Explorer: visuals significantly improved (list uses modern style, grid lines, immediate column resizing, double buffering for no flicker, thousand separators, negative values are displayed in dark red, HighDPI aware, changed toolbar)
• Snippet properties window now includes formula field for quick reference (no highlighting here - it is by design)
  

CHANGES FOR VERSION 5.85.0 (as compared to 5.84.0)

• AFL Editor: backtest* mode constants added to auto-complete list
• AFL Editor: now Code snippets are available in auto complete list (type @ plus first letter of snippet key trigger), and even without auto complete activated @keytrigger is replaced by snippet text
• AFL: added support for single-character literals, so you don't need to use Asc() funciton.
  
  Buy = Cross( MACD(), Signal() );
  Sell = Cross( Signal(), MACD() );

  Filter = Buy OR Sell;

  AddColumn( IIf( Buy, 'B', 'S' ), "Signal", formatChar );

• AFL: adding/removing symbols to/from watch list via CategoryAddSymbol/CategoryRemoveSymbol wasn't thread safe. Fixed.
• AFL: AmiBroker now checks number passed to SetOption("MaxOpenPosition", x ) and SetOption("WorstRankHeld",x ) and trims down the request to number of symbols in database to prevent running out of memory when user specifies some absurdly high values,
• AFL: new function SendEmail( "subject", "message", ShowUI = False )
  
  A direct version of functionality already provided by AlertIF. This function sends e-mail unconditionally and it is easier to use if you don't need state logic provided by AlertIf.
  Note that "From" and "To" addresses as well as SMTP email configuration should be done in Tools->Preferences, "Alerts" page.
  Without configuring E-mail settings first this function will not work.

  E-mails are sent asynchronously (so function returns BEFORE e-mail is actually sent, sending occurs in the background)

  ShowUI parameter decides whenever user interface of e-mailer program is shown after sending e-mail or not.

• AFL: SetOption("MarginRequirement", x ) checks if x is in the range 1..100 and displays an error if not.
• Backtest: backtestRegular now keeps detailed info on sequencing of signals within single bar to avoid problems with premature exit of just opened trade when same bar exits were allowed and previous trade was not open due to insuffcient funds leaving an unmatched exit signal.
  
  In case when an exit signal that really belongs to previous trade was found on the bar when next trade was open AmiBroker would display the following entry in the detailed report log:
  < Symbol> Exit/Entry/Scaling ignored because signal predates already processed event.

  FWIW: The issue did not affect other backtest modes.

• Code Snippets: added "Properties" button to the toolbar that allows editing name/description/key trigger without re-inserting snippet
• Code Snippets: New snippet/Properties dialog is now resizable
• UI: changed cursor shape in all tree views from "hand" to normal arrow
• UI: Code snippet window is now also available when AFL editor is in MDI mode (use Window->Code Snippet menu when AFL editor is open)
• UI: Interpretation window: Ctrl+C (clipboard copy) did not copy the interpretation text in 5.8x. Fixed.
  

CHANGES FOR VERSION 5.84.0 (as compared to 5.83.0)

• AFL Editor: Idle-time Info tips were positioned incorrectly in 5.83. Fixed.
• AFL Editor: Text of inserted snippet is selected so one can easily see what was inserted and delete it if was a mistake.
• AFL: added Error 57. Invalid quotation mark (when user uses curly quotation marks instead of straight quotation marks " to type a string literal)
• OLE: Document object has new property Interval (integer, read/write) - selected Interval in seconds (tick/range/volume intervals are represented by negative values)
• Report Charts: now it is possible to output HTML instead of graphics in report chart formulas using AFL: EnableTextOutput( 3 ) - HTML output to backtest report
• Report Charts: rewritten 3. Profit Table.afl using HTML embedding features auto-scalable layout (so it enlarges when numbers are bigger), bold summary columns, negative values in red, boundary date changed to last day of year/month
• UI: added Code Snippets window - allows inserting/deleting/saving selected parts of the formula as snippets. Also implemented is convenient drag-drop of snippet to the formula edit window
• UI: Further display improvements of Parameter window for high-DPI displays (ParamList bullet point is bigger and positioned better, Slider is resized when resizing param window, etc, etc)
• UI: On non-standard DPI displays Parameter window could show some visual artifacts when scrolling. Fixed.
  

CHANGES FOR VERSION 5.83.0 (as compared to 5.82.1)

• New Analysis: Watch list 0 was used automatically (without opening WL selection dialog) when new watch list is created between scan and RMB click->Add results. Fixed.
• UI: Parameter window look and feel improved. Item height is increased and slider thumb made wider for easier use on small size/high DPI screens
• Commentary: attempt to display commentary on symbol without any quotes could cause access violation. Fixed.
• AFL Editor: Verify formula run on symbol without any quotes could cause access violation. Fixed (proper error message is displayed).
• Analysis: Table header in the HTML report trade list is now right aligned (to match number alignment) (affects newly generated reports only)
• AFL editor: when syntax check is performed and errors are detected, the editor is immediately scrolled to first error
• Analysis: Minimum value for "Margin Requirement" is now 1 (1%)
• AFL: Since v5.65 RestorePriceArrays() did nothing when there was no preceding SetForeign/TimeFrameSet. Now restores data if user explicitely overwrote OHLC arrays in the code preceding it.
• Analysis: Detailed Log message "Symbol not entered bcause of insufficient funds" improved to display requested position size in units such as shares/% of equity instead of just encoded negative value
• AFL engine: brand new custom micro allocator speeds up AFL execution of complex formulas with nested loops upto 3 times.
• Turned on LowFragmentationHeap in number of places
• Code snippets: New line \n was truncated from "data export" snippet. Fixed.
• AFL Editor: parameter info tip does not disappear on pressing Backspace key anymore.
• AFL Editor: Parameter info updates highlighted parameter when moving cursor inside function's param list
• New Analysis: Less refreshes of Info page provide some extra speed
• Analysis: fixed HoldMinBars check for scenario 3 with both buy and sell generated on all bars and random scores.
  

CHANGES FOR VERSION 5.82.1 (as compared to 5.82.0)

• AFL Engine: fixes for stability issues in 5.81.0/5.82.0
• Filter dialog: a matching count wasn't updated on opening the dialog. Fixed.
• Bug report window made a little bigger so at least crash address is seen when someone sends screenshot instead of text
  

CHANGES FOR VERSION 5.82.0 (as compared to 5.81.0)

• UI: Interpretation and Commentary windows now support color text (via EncodeColor), bold and italic styles (tags: <b></b> for bold, <i> </i> for italic). Example:
  
  printf("<b>Bold text</b>\n");
printf("<i>Italic text</i>\n");
printf("Now " + EncodeColor( colorRed ) + "red text\n");
printf("and finally " + EncodeColor( colorGreen ) + "green <b>AND bold <i>AND italic</i></b>\n");
printf(EncodeColor( colorBlack ) + "going back to black");
  
• UI: Notepad, Interpretation and Commentary windows use default GUI font instead of hard-coded Tahoma now
• AFL: functionality of PlotGrid() function extended
  
  PlotGrid( level, color = colorDefault, pattern = 1, width = 1, label = True )

  pattern - defines line pattern. Available grid patterns 1..10 as shown in the Tools->Preferences, "Axes & Grids"
  1-7 are single pixel patterns, 8 is regular windows dot pattern (PS_DOT) , 9 is regular Windows dash pattern (PS_DASH), 10 is solid line

  width - grid line width (in pixels). Note that due to Windows GDI limitations only patterns 8 (PS_DOT), 9 (PS_DASH), 10 (PS_SOLID) are available in widths > 1

  label - whenever to display value label or not

  
  Use PlotGrid to display horizontal lines that are constant instead of using Plot.
  PlotGrid offers much better performance in this case.

  So instead of

  Plot( 50, "", colorRed, styleLine | styleThick );

  use:

  PlotGrid( 50, colorRed, 10, 2, False ); // solid line 2 pixels thick, no label

• AFL Editor: added 4 new snippets under "Function" category
• UI: Filter dialog now displays number of matching symbols in real-time as selections are made
• AFL: CCI function speeded up by 50%
• Inserting indicator with Param() calls into chart when currently selected symbol had no quotes caused exception. Fixed.
• AFL: In 5.81.0 CategoryGetName returned nothing (void) instead of string type when specified category did not exist. Fixed (empty string is returned now)
• New Analysis: portfolio backtest processing was attempted even if there was no symbols that matched "apply to" filter. Fixed (unnecesary processing is skipped now).
• AFL engine: in v5.81 access violation could occur when AFL array size was 0. Fixed.
  

CHANGES FOR VERSION 5.81.0 (as compared to 5.80.3)

• AFL Engine: custom memory allocator does not use Microsoft runtime lib for reference tracking anymore. Result - complex formulas with lots of loops and OLE (especially low-level custom backtests) run upto 3 times faster in 32 bit and 4 times faster in 64-bit
• AFL Editor: Parameter info tip significantly enhanced - now it re-opens on typing each , (comma) and highlights current parameter to be entered.
• UI: Column setup dialog: added Mark All / Toggle All buttons
• AFL: GetFormulaPath() function added - returns full formula file path
• AFL Editor: Smart reference highlighting implemented (usage: mark a word and all references become highlighted).
• AFL Editor: Find/Replace shows a message box when reached the end of the file and offers restarting from the beginning if new "Wrap around" option is turned on.
• AFL Engine: code refactoring for reduced size and improved speed
• AFL: when value of unsupported type was appended to string a crash could occur. Fixed.
• AFL Engine: when IIf was called the memory upsized from scalar to array could get freed twice (wrong). Fixed
• AFL: MACD() and Signal() functions made faster (approx 1.5-2x times)
• Analysis: Interest is added at the beginning of next bar (instead of end of current bar), to account for overnight rate. This also fixes the problem of ignoring interest in v.> 5.69
• UI: fixed yet another place where entering customization changed working dir

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