AmiBroker 6.30.5 Official Release Read Me

March 20, 2019 10:45

INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS

Run the setup program and follow the instructions.

Then run AmiBroker. You should see "AmiBroker 6.30.5" 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.

UPGRADE POLICY: This version is a free upgrade for users who purchased AmiBroker license after March 14, 2017.

What's new in the latest version?

Highlights of version 6.30

Version 6.30 brings lots of new functionality especially with regards to the formula language and performance . There are hundreds of new features and changes to existing functionality as compared to version 6.20, listed in detail in "Release Notes" document in AmiBroker directory. Below is just a short list of few of them:

• HIGHLIGHT: User-definable on-chart GUI controls

18 new AFL functions were added to allow creation of user-definable on-chart graphical user interfaces.


• GuiButton - create on-chart button control (AFL 4.30)
• GuiCheckBox - creates on-chart checkbox control (AFL 4.30)
• GuiDateTime - creates on-chart date-time picker control (AFL 4.30)
• GuiEdit - create on-chart edit control (AFL 4.30)
• GuiEnable - enables or disables on-chart control (AFL 4.30)
• GuiGetCheck - get checked state of control (AFL 4.30)
• GuiGetEvent - get GUI event (AFL 4.30)
• GuiGetText - get text from on-chart control (AFL 4.30)
• GuiGetValue - get numeric value of on-chart control (AFL 4.30)
• GuiRadio - creates on-chart radio button control (AFL 4.30)
• GuiSetCheck - set checked state of on-chart control (AFL 4.30)
• GuiSetFont - set the font for on-chart control (AFL 4.30)
• GuiSetRange - set slider control range (AFL 4.30)
• GuiSetText - set text value of on-chart control (AFL 4.30)
• GuiSetValue - set numeric value of on-chart control (AFL 4.30)
• GuiSetVisible - shows or hides on-chart control (AFL 4.30)
• GuiSlider - creates on-chart slider control (AFL 4.30)
• GuiToggle - create on-chart toggle button control (AFL 4.30)

• New features in AmiBroker Formula Language

• static variable declaration
• passing variables by reference
• new voice functions
  
  • VoiceSetRate - sets voice speech rate (AFL 4.30)
  • VoiceSetVolume - set the volume of speech (AFL 4.30)
  • VoiceWaitUntilDone - waits until TTS voice has finished speaking (AFL 4.30)
    
• system error handling via GetLastOSError
• support for geometric pens in GfxSelectPen
  
• Huge performance improvements in 64-bit version with migration to new VC++2017 compiler
  
  Why do we migrate to new compiler with 64-bit version?
  • New compiler supports new CPU instructions (SSE3/AVX) that we can use to offer better performance
  • According to our tests new compiler support produces faster code by itself (better optimizations, auto-vectorization, etc)
  • New compiler is better with error checking (less bugs to slip through)
  • We don't need to care about compatibility with pre-Vista systems in 64-bits version and all 64-bit capable CPUs are "modern" enough.

Why do we stay with old compiler in 32-bit version?

• New compiler does not produce code compatible with older operating systems (XP or earlier). Old compiler offers 100% compatibility with all Windows versions
• New compiler requires modern CPUs

Exact performance improvement is function dependent and hardware dependent. Many functions are faster by 30-50% but in some cases such as Min()/Max() functions as large as 8x speed up can be observed in 64-bit version.

• Other key improvements
  
  • Auto-optimization framework
  • HTML5 compatibility in Web Research window
  • comment folding in the AFL editor
  • clickable links in Analysis result list

Highlights of version 6.20

Version 6.20 brings lots of new functionality especially with regards to system testing. There are hundreds of new features and changes to existing functionality as compared to version 6.10, listed in detail in "Release Notes" document in AmiBroker directory. Below is just a short list of few of them:

• HIGHLIGHT: Integrated Batch Processor - allowing you to automate complex, sequential tasks, featuring
  • easy-to-use interface
  • built-in time scheduler
  • command line interface
  • AFL triggering
  • logging
• New features in AmiBroker Formula Language:
  • direct internet access functions (IntenetOpenURL/InternetReadString/InternetClose) allow interfacing with web / REST services from AFL
  • general purpose distribution function: PriceVolDisribution
  • more statistical functions: NormDist/Kurtosis/Skewness
  • variable period PercentRank and StDev
  • cumulative product functions CumProd/Prod/ProdSince
  • bitmap image drawing function GfxDrawImage
  • ability to select Speech API voice via VoiceSelect/VoiceCount
  • multi-text exploration columns via AddMultiTextColumn
• Performance improvements
  • faster startup
  • more responsive Analysis window while it is busy processing (plus new Pause function)
• UI and usability improvements
  • many adjustments in UI scaling to better support HiDPI/4K displays
  • walk-forward settings are now per-project, not global
  • debugger's watch window supports display of static variables and expressions with static variables

CHANGE LOG

CHANGES FOR VERSION 6.30.5 (as compared to 6.30.2)

• AFL editor switched back from UTF-8 to ANSI to maintain compatibility with old formulas without rewriting
• Windows 7: when error line was clicked and help file displayed Windows HELP window did not take focus properly. Fixed.
• New Warning 509 behaved like error (stopped optimization). Fixed.

CHANGES FOR VERSION 6.30.2 (as compared to 6.30.0)

• AFL Editor: @link command now works on single click (instead of double click)
• AFL Editor: multiple error messages per single code line are now differentiated and lead to different user guide pages when clicked
• AFL Editor: When mouse hovers over the error message the mouse cursor changes to "Hand" and the error message is clickable as normal "link" leading to users guide description of error message
• AFL: ApplyStop with ExitAtStop=2 parameter when used together with backtestRegular mode did not trigger stops in 6.25-6.30. Fixed.
• AFL: new function InternetPostRequest( url, data, flags = 0 ) - allows to make POST HTTP requests
  
  ih = InternetPostRequest( "http://server_name_here.com/testpost.php?param3=7&m4=8", /*POST DATA*/ "param1=9&m2=12" );

if( ih )
{
    while( ( str = InternetReadString( ih ) ) != "" )
    {
       printf( "%s", str );
    }
   
    InternetClose( ih );
}


// testing code (server side ) in PHP:

<?php

echo "Post variables: \r\n";

foreach ($_POST as $key => $value){
   echo "{$key} = {$value} \r\n";
}

echo "Get variables: \r\n";

foreach ($_GET as $key => $value){
   echo "{$key} = {$value} \r\n";
}

?>
  
• AFL: Now() function supports format = 11 - returns Unix timestamp (number of seconds since Jan 1, 1970)
• AFL: OscP/OscV could cause exception in unlikely event when entire Close or Volume array was filled by Null values. Fixed
• Docs: added detailed descriptions of Warnings 504, 505, 506, 507, 508 and 509, Errors 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70
• Docs: updated documentation on ApplyStop to include activationFloor
• Intraday date axis hours could show 24:00 when negative timeshifts were defined in the settings. Fixed
• Matrix variables that were passed to single-argument math functions (sqrt, exp) did not have their ref count updated correctly. Fixed.
• Plugins are now loaded from work_dir\Plugins if exe_dir\Plugins folder does not exist
• Pref: "Ask before closing indicator pane" is now turned on by default
• Pref: Misc/ Max Number of decimal places in titles and RT quote bumped o 7
• UI: In 64-bit version only the .AFL extension in the editor window caption was removed. Fixed.
• Web Research predefined profiles: removed "MarketWatch" because the site is not available anymore

CHANGES FOR VERSION 6.30.0 (as compared to 6.29.0)

• AFL: GfxSelectPen function - added support for geometric pens (including flat endcap):
  
  PS_ENDCAP_FLAT = 0x200;
PS_ENDCAP_SQUARE = 0x100;

GfxFillSolidRect( 100, 80, 200, 260, colorGreen );

// flat end cap
GfxSelectPen( colorRed, 10, PS_ENDCAP_FLAT );
GfxMoveTo( 100, 100 );
GfxLineTo( 200, 200 );

// square end cap
GfxSelectPen( colorRed, 10, PS_ENDCAP_SQUARE );
GfxMoveTo( 100, 120 );
GfxLineTo( 200, 220 );

// round end cap (default)
GfxSelectPen( colorRed, 10 );
GfxMoveTo( 100, 140 );
GfxLineTo( 200, 240 );
• AFL: GuiEnable( id, enable ) - enables / disables GUI control. Disabled control can not be clicked and has "grayed" look
• AFL: GuiGetValue( id ) - gets the value of GUI control (for example slider position). For non-slider controls value is number representing control text converted to number)
• AFL: GuiSetValue( id, value ) - sets the value of GUI control (for example slider position). For non-slider control value will be converted to text and assigned as GuiSetText( id, NumToStr( value ) )
• AFL: GuiSetVisible( id, visible ) - shows/hides GUI control
  // control identifiers
idSlider = 1;
idEnable = 2;
idDisable = 3;
idShow = 4;
idHide = 5;

function CreateGUI()
{
     if ( GuiSlider( idSlider, 10, 30, 200, 30, notifyEditChange ) == guiNew )
     {
         // init values on control creation
        GuiSetValue( idSlider, 5 );
         GuiSetRange( idSlider, 1, 100, 0.1, 100 );
     }

     GuiButton( "enable", idEnable, 10, 60, 100, 30, notifyClicked );
     GuiButton( "disable", idDisable, 110, 60, 100, 30, notifyClicked );
     GuiButton( "show", idShow, 10, 90, 100, 30, notifyClicked );
     GuiButton( "hide", idHide, 110, 90, 100, 30, notifyClicked );
}


function HandleEvents()
{
     id = GuiGetEvent( 0, 0 );

     switch ( id )
     {
         case 2:
             GuiEnable( idSlider, True );
             break;

         case 3:
             GuiEnable( idSlider, False );
             break;

         case 4:
             GuiSetVisible( idSlider, True );
             break;

         case 5:
             GuiSetVisible( idSlider, False );
             break;
     }
}


CreateGUI();
HandleEvents();

Title = "Value = " + GuiGetValue( idSlider );


• AFL: Hexadecimal numbers can be now written using 0x prefix (as in C/C++)
• AFL: In 6.29 GfxSelectPen function was not functioning without geometric style. Fixed.
• AFL: InternetOpenURL( url, flags = 0 ) - added 'flags' parameter
  
  Note 1: Flags are the same as defined by WINAPI, examples:
  INTERNET_FLAG_RELOAD = 0x80000000;
  INTERNET_FLAG_NO_COOKIES = 0x00080000;

  Flags should be combined using binary OR operator: |

  Note 2: ASCII transfers are used always

  INTERNET_FLAG_RELOAD = 0x80000000;
INTERNET_FLAG_NO_COOKIES = 0x00080000;

// Example don't use cached content and don't use cookies
ih = InternetOpenURL( "http://www.google.com", INTERNET_FLAG_RELOAD | INTERNET_FLAG_NO_COOKIES );

InternetClose( ih );

• AFL: new function GuiSetRange( min, max, step, ticfreq ) - sets the min-max range of slider control
  if( GuiSlider( 1, 10, 30, 200, 30, notifyEditChange ) == guiNew )
{
   // init values on control creation
   GuiSetValue( 1, 5 );
   GuiSetRange( 1, 1, 100, 0.1, 100 );
}

Title = "Value = " + GuiGetValue( 1 );
• AFL: new function GuiSlider( id, x, y, width, height, notifyflags ) - creates slider control
  
• AFL: new function remap( x, fromMin, fromMax, toMin, toMax ) - performs re-mapping from one range to another, works on scalars and arrays
• AFL: When OLEDATE type (read from OLE objects) is assigned to AFL variable it gets converted to string using ISO format (YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS). Time part only appears for records within non-zero time component
• ASCII import: Aux1/2 fields can now be imported separately from two different files (combined) when using $HYBRID
• In 6.29 estimated number of optimization steps displayed in 'warning' in case of tiny (fractional) step increment may be lower than actual number of steps
• In 6.29, due to changes, some chart Gui* controls (owner draw) did not repaint on window resize. Fixed.
• UI: File->New Database-> Create button now recursively creates all missing directories if multiple nested non-existing dirs were typed in
• UI: new databases are now created in separate "databases" subfolder by default

CHANGES FOR VERSION 6.29.0 (as compared to 6.28.0)

• AFL: added GuiDateTime function
  
  lastdate = StaticVarGetText("lastdate");

if( GuiDateTime( 100, 10, 35, 200, 30, notifyEditChange ) == guiNew )
{
    GuiSetText( lastdate, 100 );
    _TRACE("new!!!!");
}

id = GuiGetEvent( 0, 0 );
code = GuiGetEvent( 0, 1 );

if( id == 100 && code == notifyEditChange )
{
lastdate = GuiGetText( 100 );
StaticVarSetText( "lastdate", lastdate );
}

Title = "" + lastdate;
Plot(C,"t", colorRed );

• AFL: Gui creation functions (GuiButton, GuiEdit, GuiDateTime and others) return guiNew (1) when control is newly created or guiExisting (2) when control already exists. This is useful for one-time initialization when control is being created.
• AFL: InternetSetAgent("agent") - new function to set user agent for InternetOpenURL
• AFL: new Error 70 - displayed on attempt yo use InternetSetAgent when it is already set or connection was already open
• Analysis: added Notice 802: Trade size limite of X% of entry bar volume has been hit N times.
• Charts: Vertical line (Y axis line) between chart area and Y axis scale is drawn with ZOrder = 0 instead of ZOrder = 128
• Charts: Y-axis scale for huge negative values (below minus 1 billion) was incorrect. Fixed
• File: Chart template, complete now also saves the content of files included using #include_once
• New Analysis: decreased number of cases when IEEE rounding of fractional steps result in one step less than naive expecation in optimization
• UI: 'Backtest settings' caption changed to 'Analysis Settings' and changed the layout of 'general' tab - data settings (that apply to everything mode) grouped separately from purely backtest settings
• UI: increased number of user-definable Tool window menu items to 20 (from 10)

CHANGES FOR VERSION 6.28.0 (as compared to 6.27.1)

• AFL: AddToComposite will issue error 69 if user passes field code other than "O", "H", "L", "C", "V", "I", "1", "2", or "X"
• AFL: another protection for users shooting themselves in the foot: AddToComposite will issue error 68 when user passes invalid symbol string (empty or with characters like comma or new line or tab)
• AFL: improved type checking for bad type of array arguments
• AFL: New warning 508 is displayed if same category type is used multiple times in the Filter settings window and formula calls GetOption("FilterInclude*") or GetOption("FilterExclude*). Code using such statements is incorrect for such filters.
• AFL: now you can pass references as arguments to built-in funcitons and they will be automatically dereferenced ("by value" sematics enforced)
• AFL: user-defined functions that return matrix reclaim memory faster than before to avoid large memory consumption on super-long loops calling them
• AFL: VarGet was not working properly with matrices on 64 bit version. Fixed.
• AQ: 3.29 - when current working directory is set incorrectly it sets it back to where it should be. Correct working dir is required for relative paths to work
• Backtest: interest earned on cash balances and charged on margin load is reported separately in backtest report now (if non-zero)
• Core: sizes of some hash tables increased to speed up lookups
• enable_static_decl created prefixes in original case (both upper and lowercase). Since StaticVar* functions always use lowercase names this made them unable to read declared statics other than all lowercase. Now declared variables are internally lowecase
• Gui control custom colors - defaults changed to use Windows default "hot" color (blue) for hover outline and (hover + selected) state is now drawn with hover border and text but 'selected' background
• GuiGetCheck returned 0 on owner draw toggle (custom colors) due to Windows limitation. Fixed.
• IB plugin: right mouse button click : Backfill Current was causing exception for symbols longer than 26 letters. Fixed. (Version 2.0.10)
• If user formula had run-time errors and produced zero trades the "Info" tab issued "Reporting has been turned off by SetOption" since there was no report generated but not because of option, but because of formula error. Fixed (the message is not displaye
• IQFeed: in mixed mode EOD data got preference if there is not enough room to fit all intraday and all eod in defined "number of bars"
• New Analysis: added 'notices' to Info tab that inform the user about potential problems and recommended actions. Currently one notice is displayed when user tries to use ranking or composites without enabling padding. Will add more notices in the future
• New Analysis: progress bar will not display "remaining time" until at least one step is completed. Also if remaing time is > 2 billion years it will display (unknown), and will report remaing time in million years if necessary (for example when user star
• Setup 64-bit: program and all plugins use newest compiler and newest VC++2017 runtime
• Setup 64-bit: activation key should work without installing VC2005 runtime
• UI: "OK" button appears on splash screen only if it does not auto-close

CHANGES FOR VERSION 6.27.1 (as compared to 6.26.0)

• AFL Editor: preprocessor command (#include/#include_once/#pragma) are highlighted with different color to give visual clue that preprocessor command is NOT regular code
• AFL: #pragma enable_static_decl accepts prefix given in quotation marks (as regular string).
  #pragma enable_static_decl "myprefix{chartid}"
• AFL: due to changes in 6.25 BETA TimeFrameSet applied on 1-tick base interval could result in division by zero exception. Fixed.
• AFL: Error 66 has new meaning now. It is issued to prevent attempts to mix static declarations with old style access. Error 66. Variables with '---' prefix are inaccesible via StaticVarGet/Set/Remove in this formula. This prefix is reserved by #pragma ena
• AFL: Removed Error 66: invalid identifier from VarSet/VarGet. Instead of issuing error message, VarGet/VarSet automatically sanitizes invalid identifiers by replacing all characters other than digits and A-Z, a-z letters by underscore
• AFL: runtime tokens {chartid}, {symbol}, {interval} are now supported in #pragma enable_static_decl
• AFL: SetFormulaName - displays error 67 if user tries to use file-system forbidden characters for formula name
• AFL: StaticVarRemove() when called with EMPTY string: StaticVarRemove("") nullifies all static variables declared with static keyword within given formula, so this:

#pragma enable_static_decl(test)
static _x, _y, _z;

_x = 1;
_y = 2;
_z = 3;

StaticVarRemove(""); // nullify all declared static variables

printf("%g %g %g", _x, _y, _z );

is equivalent to writing
  
#pragma enable_static_decl(test)
static _x, _y, _z;

_x = 1;
_y = 2;
_z = 3;

_x = Null; _y = Null; _z = Null;

printf("%g %g %g", _x, _y, _z );

// note that setting declared static variable to Null value results in removing it from memory

StaticVarRemove("") - returns number of variables nullified. Returns 0 on failure (no declared static variables found in current formula)

• AFL: when declared static variable is assigned the NULL value, it will be removed from memory when formula finishes
• ASCII importer: importer logged "ran of industry space" even if it didn't. Fixed.
• CBT: If user called ApplyStop AND calls EnterTrade from low-level backtest and did not switch backtestRegular mode to raw mode (which should be done), backtester would automatically turn on 2nd phase stops handling to prevent crash
• Charts: a crash could occur if user had lots of drawn trendlines on multiple panes and some of them had start date BEFORE first available bar and RT stream was frequently updating. Fixed.
• Make #pragma enable_static_decl is now private functionality. This means that it will work just fine but we don't provide any help/support except of what is written in readme/manual
• New Analysis: you can now copy dates between "From" and "To" date pickers (right click menu or Ctrl+C/Ctrl+V)
• UI: Bar replay From-to controls support copy-paste (right click or Ctrl+C/Ctrl+V)
• UI:added preprocessor color picker in Tools->Preferences, "Editor"
• 6.27.1 fix: In 6.27.0 VarSet did not work properly. Fixed.
• 6.27.1 fix: Backtest: since 6.25 crash could occur if "detailed log" was enabled and trade was not entered due to unsufficent funds because format string was not matching arguments. Fixed.

CHANGES FOR VERSION 6.26.0 (as compared to 6.25.0)

• AFL: new static keyword: declare identifier as static variable - a little 'revolution' in static variable use, declare variable as static and use as 'regular' variable, no need to call functions
  
  // the pragma below is required to enable support for static declarations
// it also defines the prefix which is added to variables declared with static keyword
// it is one prefix per formula.
#pragma enable_static_decl(prefix)

// it is really good idea to consequently use naming convention that
// distinguishes declared static variables from the others
// we highly recommend using UNDERSCORE '_' before all declared static variables
// so they can be easily spotted in the code
// The other choice could be s_ prefix

static _myvar;  // this var is also accessible by "prefix_myvar"

printf( "This variable is really static %g", _myvar++ );

// keep in mind that for speed static variable is read only once at the declaration
// and saved only once - when formula execution is completed
// This way declared static variables offer same speed as regular variables (no speed penalty)
  
• AFL Editor: contrast of error location indicator on dark backgrounds increased
• AFL Editor: C-style comments /* ... */ are now foldable in the editor
• AFL Editor: new menu choices View->Fold Comments / Unfold Comments - allow to fold/unfold all multi-line comments (enclosed with /* .... */)
• AFL: added constants notifyClicked, notifySetFocus, notifyKillFocus, notifyHitReturn, notifyEditChange, notifySelChange, notifyMouseEnter, notifyMouseLeave
• AFL: Another protection against users shooting themselves in foot, VarSet/VarGet now displays error when you try to use characters different than A-Z, 0-9 and '_' in variable names
• AFL: Attempt to use single subscript on matrix variable now results in error message "Accessing Matrix elements requires two subscript operators"
• AFL: Due to the fact that Windows may send WM_MOUSEMOVE message even if mouse did not move, AmiBroker now has internal check that prevents ReqestMouseMoveRefresh from triggering if mouse position did not change
• AFL: GetLastOSError (for getting last error message from Windows) - allows getting information about and handling of runtime OS errors
  
  // Example 1:
fh = fopen("non_existing_file.txt", "r" );

if( ! fh )
{
   printf("File can not be open because: %s", GetLastOSError() );
}

// Example 2:
ih = InternetOpenUrl("http://non_existing_host.com" );

if( ! ih )
{
   printf("Internet connection can not be open because: %s", GetLastOSError() );
}
• AFL: GuiButton and GuiToggle in native OS style use background color of the chart for small border instead of default grey
• AFL: GuiButton/GuiCHeckBox/GuiToggle/GuiRadio support now new events notifyMouseEnter (64) and notifyMouseLeave(128) which detect hovering without need for constant refreshes
  
  #pragma enable_static_decl(myprefix)

static _counter;

flags = notifyMouseEnter | notifyMouseLeave;

GuiButton("test", 1, 20, 20, 100, 100, flags);
GuiCheckBox("test 2", 2, 200, 20, 200, 20, flags );

GuiSetColors( 2, 2, 0, colorRed, colorBlue );

Title = StrFormat( "%s. Refresh # %g\n", GuiGetEvent( 0, 2 ), _counter++ );

nc = GuiGetEvent( 0 , 1 );

if( nc == notifyMouseEnter ) GfxTextOut( "MOUSE ENTER", 200, 50 );
if( nc == notifyMouseLeave ) GfxTextOut( "MOUSE LEAVE", 200, 50 );

_TRACE(Title );
  
• AFL: GuiCheckBox and GuiRadio now support custom colors of text and background
• AFL: In 6.25 Gui* keyboard navigation interferred with delete key and possibly other shortcuts due to the way how windows works. Implemented workaround so keys are only intercepted if child window (control) has focus.
• AFL: In 6.25 Gui* keyboard navigation was turned on by default, now it is off by default but can be turned on if you use SetOption("GuiEnableKeyboard", True )
• AFL: In 6.25 GuiGetCheck returned -1 on unchanged. Now it returns only 0 (unchecked) or 1 (checked)
• AFL: In case of Windows INET API error, Internet* functions now report Warning 507 instead of generic error 47. Warning 507 is Level-3 warning, i.e. editor-only, which means it will pop up in the formula editor, but won't break execution in runtime (indic
• AFL: Now can use subscript operator [ ] on references to arrays and matrices
• AFL: Passing by reference does not create nested references in user-defined function calls
• AFL: VoiceSetRate( rate ) - sets SAPI voice (speech synthesis) rate. Rate of 0 (zero) is "normal", negative is slower, positive is faster (allowable range -10..+10)
• AFL: VoiceSetVolume( volume ) - sets SAPI voice (speech synthesis) volume (0..100)
• AFL: VoiceWaitUntilDone( timeout ) - waits until voice has finished speaking or specified timeout (1..100ms) has elapsed. Returns True if voice finished, False if the timeout elapsed
  
  VoiceSetRate( -10 );
Say("I am speaking slowly", False);

while( ! VoiceWaitUntilDone( 100 ) );
printf("Done 1\n");

VoiceSetRate( 0 );
Say("I am speaking normally", False);

while( ! VoiceWaitUntilDone( 100 ) );
printf("Done 2\n");

VoiceSetRate( 5 );
Say("I am speaking fast", False);

  
• broker.master file is saved to a new name and renamed later to avoid corruption when Windows decides to shutdown, restart or sleep during save
• Dev: 64-bit new compiler (VC2017) broke backward compatibility with singletons that UI lib uses causing infinite loop when High Contrast scheme was used. Workaround implemented.
• Misc: 64-bit: Restored correct manifest (from pre6.22) with compat records so Win 10 does not lie about version number and re-added 24-bit large PNG icon
• New Analysis: Added support for clickable links. If you put @link URL in any cell of Analysis result list it creates a clickable row. If you double click on the row while holding down ALT key it will open the link
  
  AddTextColumn("@link http://www.amibroker.com/", "double click me with ALT key");

// Hidden links are possible if you add the @link in the column past the last defined one
AddRow( "ticker\tdatetime\ttest\t@link http://www.amibroker.com" );


CHANGES FOR VERSION 6.25.0 (as compared to 6.22.0)

• 64-bit: In 6.22 the array division could produce 1ulp (units at least place) rounding errors due to too excessive new VC++2017 compiler optimizations. Workaround implemented to avoid that.
• Added support for formatDateTimeISON (ISO format NO dashes: YYYYMMDD for end of day and YYYYMMDD HHMMSS for intraday)
  AddColumn( DateTime(), "dt", formatDateTimeISON );
  Filter = 1;
  
• AFL Editor: added one-time message "In the Debug mode number of bars is limited to 200 bars. You can change it in Tools->Preferences, Debugger tab" because users don't read docs
• AFL: ApplyStop now has 8th argument: ActivationFloor that defines the amount of profit (in dollars or percents, according to stopmode) that must be exceeded before stop is activated
• AFL: Gui* - controls are created in the order of occurence in AFL formula (instead shuffled or reverse as in previous version)
• AFL: Gui* - keyboard navigation is now enabled (you can tab between controls and use arrows to navigate control groups such as radio boxes)
• AFL: IsNull() accepts matrix input and returns 0 (False), i.e. "variable is not null" if variable is of matrix type
• AFL: math functions such as sin(), sqrt(), etc can now be applied to matrices (element-wise operation) (previously such attempt resulted in access violation)
• AFL: New feature: Passing arguments as reference (allows modification of arguments passed - easy way to return multiple values), to pass by reference use & (address-of) operator before variable identifier
  Reference is actually a pointer to (address of) the variable. If it is passed to function it allows original variable to be modified.
  The difference between AFL and C language is that while you are using address-of operator when you call function,
  you don't need any special syntax in the function itself. This has advantage that same function can be called with arguments passed by value and by reference
  and which one is used is just directed by the way you call the function. AFL automatically and transparently knows that it needs to dereference addresses when
  references are used in aritmetic operations, function calls or assignments.

  function test( x, y )
  {
  x += 1;
  y += 2;
  }

  a = 23;
  b = 25;
  printf("Before function call: a=%g, b=%g\n", a, b );

  test( &a, &b ); // pass references (variables get modified)

  printf("After function by ref call: a=%g, b=%g\n", a, b );

  test( a, b ); // pass values (no modification happens)

  printf("After function by val call: a=%g, b=%g\n", a, b );

  
  
• AFL: new function GuiCheckBox - creates check box
• AFL: new function GuiGetCheck( id ) - gets 'checked' or "ON" state of toggle, checkbox and radio buttons
• AFL: new function GuiRadio - creates radio button
• AFL: new function GuiSetCheck( id, checked ) - sets 'checked' or 'ON' state of toggle, checkbox and radio buttons
• AFL: new function GuiSetFont( "fontface", size )
• AFL: new function GuiToggle - creates toggle button (like normal button but it toggles between "on" and "off" state with each click)
• AFL: SetOption("OptimizeSaveParams", True ); - turns on generation of AFL file that contains values of optimization parameters producing best result. The generated file has the same name as formula run but has .opt.afl extension
  
  This functionality is provided to simplify creation of auto-optimization schemes

  How to use:

  1. Create your main formula, say it's file name is "Formulas/Custom/MainFormula.afl"
  2. Create your opt param formula: "Formulas/Custom/MainFormula.opt.afl"
  In the opt param formula type:
  // This file will be automatically overwritten by optimizer with best values
  first_param = 6;
  second_param = 12;

  3. In the main formula type:

  #include "Formulas/Custom/MainFormula.opt.afl"

  x = Optimize("first_param", first_param, 3, 10, 1 );
  y = Optimize("second_param", second_param, 11, 30, 1 );

  // causes automatic generation of MainFormula.opt.afl
  SetOption("OptimizeSaveParams", 1 );

  // dummy system using two params
  Buy = Cross( C, MA( C, x ) );
  Sell = Cross( MA( C, y ), C );

  4. Run optimization

  After it is complete MainFormula.opt.afl will be overwritten with optimum values

  
  
• AFL: When using TimeFrame functions, QuickAFL now uses ratio of requested_interval/current_interval multipled by 30 to better estimate required bars
• ships with newest AmiQuote 3.22 (see AmiQuote read me for details)
• Analysis: Detailed log displays information about ignored ScaleIn/Outs because of insufficient funds or trade size constraints
• Analysis: Detailed log now displays all warnings about skipped/ignored signals in RED color so they are easier to spot
• Data: when performing X:Y split and X or Y exceeded 255 the factor was incorrectly displayed (negative) in the Symbol window. Fixed.
• formatDateTimeISO and formatDateTimeISON added to syntax highlighter definitions
• Scheduler: Repeat "Daily" mode repeated batch run every day even if some days were unchecked. Fixed.
• UI: Place Order dialog - allows typing stop distances smaller than 0.1 now
• UI: Prefs/Charting: Turning on "Collapse parameter sections" option causes all sections in Parameter window to be collapsed (NOT good idea for newbies as they wont see the controls !)
• Web Research: many HTML5 pages did not display properly because of the fact that web browser used old IE7 mode. Now browser uses IE11 mode at minimum for proper HTML5 rendering

CHANGES FOR VERSION 6.22.0 (as compared to 6.21.0)

• 64-bit: migrated all code to new compiler VC++2017 which seems to produce better code for x64 resulting in 30...50% speed improvements for many AFL functions. The only negative seems to be much bigger runtime libs
• 64-bit: AFL: Sum() function 2x faster
• 64-bit: AFL: Max() and Min() functions 8x faster
• 64-bit: AFL: Ref() funciton 2x faster
• 64-bit: AFL: MACD(), ROC(), StDev(), LinearReg() and many other functions faster by 30-50%
• AFL: GetExtraData does not trigger code check and profile warning about referencing future quotes if plugin implements new GetExtraDataEx function
• AFL: GuiEdit complained about 2nd parameter instead of 1st (being less than zero)

CHANGES FOR VERSION 6.21.0 (as compared to 6.20.1)

• AFL: decreased memory fragmentation when user changes type of variable from array to scalar and back thousands of times
• AFL: GuiButton( "Text", id, x, y, width , height , notifyflags ) - creates a button
  "Text" is a text to be displayed on the button
  x, y are pixel coordinates of top-left corner of the control
  width, height are pixel width and height of the control

  notifyflags - decides which events fire execution of your formula, it can be any combination of values below
  1 - clicked (button)
  2 - setfocus (all)
  4 - killfocus (all)
  8 - hit enter/return key (edit)
  16 - edit change (edit)

• AFL: GuiEdit( id, x, y, width, height, notifyflags ); - creates an edit field
  x, y are pixel coordinates of top-left corner of the control
  width, height are pixel width and height of the control

  notifyflags - decides which events fire execution of your formula, it can be any combination of values below
  1 - clicked (button)
  2 - setfocus (all)
  4 - killfocus (all)
  8 - hit enter/return key (edit)
  16 - edit change (edit)

• AFL: GuiGetEvent( num, what = 0 )
  what = 0 - ID of control that received event (number)
  what = 1 - the notification code (number)
  what = 2 - the ID, the code and the notification description as text (string)

  num parameter defines the index of notification in the queue. 0 is first received (or "oldest") since last execution.

  Usually there is zero (when formula execution was not triggered by UI event) or one event in the queue but
  note that there can be MORE than one event notification in the queue if your formula is slow to process. To retrieve them all use increasing "num" parameter as long as GuiGetEvent does not return zero (in what =0, =1 mode) or empty string (what=2).

  
  // read all pending events
  for( i = 0; id = GuiGetEvent( i ); i++ )
  {
  code = GuiGetEvent( i, 1 );
  text = GuiGetEvent( i, 2 );
  }

• AFL: GuiGetText( id ) - get text from control
• AFL: GuiSetColors( idFrom, idTo, border , clrText = -1, clrBack = -1, clrBorder = -1, clrSelText = -1, clrSelBack = -1, clrSelBorder = -1, clrHoverText = -1, clrHoverBack = -1, clrHoverBorder = -1, clrDisText = -1, clrDisBack = -1, clrDisBorder = -1)
  
  idFrom, idTo - define range of control IDs that will use new colors. To set color for single control use the same value for both idFrom and idTo
  border - defines border width of button (does not affect other control types)

  clrText, clrBack, clrBorder - define colors of control text (fgcolor), background (bgcolor) and border (if border width is > 0 ) in "default" control state (unselected)
  selectfgcolor. -1 means colorDefault and if all colors are set to default then control uses SYSTEM (Windows) look

  clrSelText, clrSelBack, clrSelBorder - define colors in selected state
  clrHoverText, clrHoverBack, clrHoverBorder - define colors in hover (mouse over) state
  clrDisText, clrDisBack, clrDisBorder - define colors in disabled state

  Please note that currently only buttons support custom colors and custom border
  As for v6.21 Edit fields always use system look
  

• AFL: GuiSetText( "text", id ) - set text of the control
  
• AFL: RequestMouseMoveRefresh() - request formula execution / refresh when mouse is moved INSIDE given chart pane (so it only triggers for ONE window under the cursor)
  This provides less resource consuming way to handle chart graphics that depends on mouse hovering over chart pane than using RequestTimedRefresh as it only triggers one window currently under the cursor and only does not trigger refreshes when mouse does not move

  NOTE2: mouse move refreshes come "as fast as possible". if your code is fast you can get butter smooth animation (even 50fps)

  Example:
  Plot( C, "Price", colorDefault );
GfxCircle( GetCursorXPosition(1), GetCursorYPosition(1), 7 );
RequestMouseMoveRefresh();
  
• If Quote.exe is missing and AmiBroker can't do auto-update of quotes, a detailed information is displayed of where it expects Quote.exe file to be present
• Plugin loading changed: first AmiBroker attempts to load plugins for "Plugins" subfolder from where Broker.EXE file is located (new behavior) and if subfolder is NOT found, it then defaults to old behavior (using "Plugins" subfolder under current working

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