Comments and Questions

[gspiker]

Hi,

This is a nice first step to getting an easy to use front end for the non-programmers. Let me start off with Q's and C's from the email:

provide access to the new multiple time frame bar builder.

Huh? This sounds very interesting...but what is it?

possibly show the source code of the EFS as it is being generated, originally had this on the right side, but the dialog was just too large

I like this, great teaching tool, but make it an optional window that isn't attached to the main formula window. Also, make it resizable.


OK...On to running the thing:

It was fairly intuitive to me. Prehaps the only step that puzzled me for a minuate was after I created the darn formula, how did I get it added to the Alert list.

HOWEVER, (notice it is a big however) if the goal was to make this easy for non-efs people...well, I don't think it's there yet. I understand what it means whe I see MAStudy(20,0, "Close", MAStudy.EXPOENTIAL). For some that will stop them in their tracks. This gets back to letting people define descriptions somehow in the code iteself. It is a bite you will have to take sometime if you want to get to the masses of traders who don't want to learn anything new (remember, even learning a new GUI is a barrier for some people)...think of something similar to XML tags as a way to do this.

I was REALLY impressed with how easy it was for me to create a new EMA to EMA crossover from the original. One suggestion to make it easier...along with "remove", "rename", and "new alert", have a "copy" button.

Also, even though I added alerts to list, it doesn't seem to really do any checking of syntax...I could modify an alert and make a msiatke and add it to the list and sit there fat dumb and happy - until my trigger never happened.

Along a similar line, I made a mistake when typing the symbol name and was never warned of an invalid symbol...again it could ruin someones day to type in IDM ianstead of IBM and think everything is OK.

I do like the pull downs once the formula's are in the alert list. Activate and Deactive are great too.

One thing that had me scratching my head...if I clicked on edit for the getValue call, the numBars paramter made no sense to me - it is set to 1. What is it? This gets back to allowing the users to define the tags for the parameters that then go into the description boxes. It is a must have.

Once again - great step forward! As it stands it will really help those that want to do simple alerts (most traders I think) and don't mind understanding a bit of efs (some traders). With a little more work (well, ok, more than a little), I think you can get it to work for just about all traders.

[DionLoy]

Hey Garth,

It was fairly intuitive to me. Prehaps the only step that puzzled me for a minuate was after I created the darn formula, how did I get it added to the Alert list.

How do you think we can improve that part of the UI? This is one of the possible slipping points for new users, how would they differentiate between a 'library formula' and a real 'alert'. Is it obvious that many alerts can share one formula, or that one alert can have its own 'unnamed' formula that is not part of the library of formulas?

Was that part evident to you?

"Close", MAStudy.EXPOENTIAL). For some that will stop them in their tracks. This gets back to letting people define descriptions somehow in the code iteself. It is a bite you will have to take sometime if you want to get to the masses of traders who don't want to learn anything new (remember, even learning a new GUI is a barrier for some people)...think of something similar to XML tags as a way to do this.

I was a bit confused about this part until I read your last paragraph. If you click on the parameter name in the function editor, the description for that particular parameter should show up in the bottom of the dialog. Did you notice that? Any way to make it more noticeable? We can change those parameter names, they were just the ones I chose in the XML description file.

All: If you come across an awkwardly named parameter, please let me know, or suggest an alternative, we can change those very very easily.

Anyway, let me know if those descriptions in the function editor take care of your main concern with the parameter names.

'Copy' button is a great idea. It was on the TODO list but somehow got lost =).

I will also add the syntax checking (tricky part is how to get it translated back to an individual line in the wizard UI, but that's for me to worry about =) )

Thanks for the feedback Garth!

[gspiker]

Hi,

How do you think we can improve that part of the UI?

Well, here is my idea for general improvement:

1) Allow an expert mode (what you have now) and a newbie mode. The newbie mode would be more "Wizard Like". ie: Ask the user what he wants to do (what type of alert), and then step him though it a page at a time. This keeps the steps to create a new alert clear - but also exposes only a bit of the overall process at a time and will help cut down on the "fear" or "overwhelmed" factor for the new user.

2) In expert mode, a help button the outlineshigher level steps.

This is one of the possible slipping points for new users, how would they differentiate between a 'library formula' and a real 'alert'. Is it obvious that many alerts can share one formula, or that one alert can have its own 'unnamed' formula that is not part of the library of formulas?

Was that part evident to you?

To me it was obvious that many alerts can share one formula, but I am still unclear as to what you mean by one alert having its own "unnamed" formula. Could you clarify (my appologies if this should be clear - I'm dealing with a flu bug right now and my brain is at 1/2 power).

If you click on the parameter name in the function editor, the description for that particular parameter should show up in the bottom of the dialog. Did you notice that? Any way to make it more noticeable? We can change those parameter names, they were just the ones I chose in the XML description file.

Very cool! No I missed that. This is great. Maybe a hint that tells people this is possible in the editor window itself would help here. This is too nice a feature not to let people know its there.

One comment - add a scroll button to the description box - click on numbars for the MAStudy getValue to see why.

Oh yes, and it looks like you need to add a space between listing the paramter value and the description in the description box.

A question on this XML description file, and 3rd party formulas that people may want to add to alerts. If I wanted to document my parameters to my formula (one I wrote myself and want to allow others to use the wizard with), can I modify the XML directory and somehow allow it all to work togther?

thanks,

Garth

[DionLoy]

Hey Garth:

1) Allow an expert mode (what you have now) and a newbie mode. The newbie mode would be more "Wizard Like". ie: Ask the user what he wants to do (what type of alert), and then step him though it a page at a time.

Ah yes. This is what we have in mind for the generic Formula Wizard. Idealy the wizard will be driven by XML files, and we'd create wizard XML to create price studies, indicators, backtesting, etc... Hopefully we can make it so that 3rd party folks such as dynaorder can also drop in their own XML wizard for use within eSignal.

To me it was obvious that many alerts can share one formula, but I am still unclear as to what you mean by one alert having its own "unnamed" formula.

Okay, you know about the Formula Library. To create an alert, you would have to create the formula first, name it, then assign it to an alert. I added 'unnamed' formulas so that you can just create the alert with the formula. The formula is tied ONLY to that alert, and is NOT stores in the Formula Library. This is to speed up the process in the future for simple alerts (like right-click on the chart, select alert if price is over MACD, etc... a quick formula set up for only one symbol).

A question on this XML description file, and 3rd party formulas that people may want to add to alerts. If I wanted to document my parameters to my formula (one I wrote myself and want to allow others to use the wizard with), can I modify the XML directory and somehow allow it all to work togther?

You've got the right idea about where we're going with this. We'd like people like dynaorder to write XML descripts for their own routines and allow their clients to dump it into the appropriate folder to be picked up automatically by the function editor.