General Formula Reference Update?

[mbuta]

There are new functions, builtins, etc. that are not explained in the present present documents available on eSignal site.

When will a new and updated version be available?
(Personally, I hate to have to ask gere questions that should have answers in a Reference Document).

Related question: Is it too dificult for someone to insert (basic)comments in the efs file you guys make available to us?

Thanks.

[eSignal_JasonK]

Hello mbuta,

Which functions and built-ins are you referring to specifically? If we are indeed missing some help documentation here I will get it posted.

In case you weren't aware, our forums have a search feature that can find posts containing your key word that may discuss solutions to the issues you are looking for help with. The search feature is located near the top of this page.

Now let's discuss your question about adding comments to the EFS files. Yes, we could put comments within the files and some files have some basic comments. However, we're working on something better. In the near future, we will be going live with a new web page at www.esignalcentral.com that will allow us to centralize all of our help documentation, formulas developed from requests and many of our existing formulas. Here you will be able to search in multiple ways for specific formulas (and help documentation) by category or key word search. In addition, you will be able to read detailed comments about the formula and see an example chart with a link to download the formula from File Share. The most important feature to this new web page is that all this information will be searchable by key word, including the EFS code for each formula. We will post an announcement in this forum when it is completed.

Thank you for your suggestions and interest in EFS development.

[mbuta]

Missing Documentation

Some example of constructs, functions, global variables I came accross and did not find anything to understand how to use them:

- A List of available Global Variables
- Constructs, methods for Strategy and alerts
- Constructs, methods for drawing shapes on charts.

- There is no help or instructions to use any of the advanced charting tools. It happens that I used to use GET so I recognize many of them.

Ref efs comments: Yes, a general help area would be welcome. If this comes as a Help Link directly in the editor window (like TradeStation has) is fine, otherwise it would be much easier (for us) to have some comments so we do not have to decifer your code to see if we want to use that function or not.

One more thing. The fact that Formula Wizard requires Explorer 6 is not mentioned in the system requirements for 7.2 and I scrambled two days until I understood why my (two) computers were crashing like crazy.

[eSignal_JasonK]

Hello Mihai,

I think that what you are searching for has more to do with how to write code with JavaScript. Let me try to explain some details about the eSignal Formula Script (EFS) feature to our software. The programming language uses the JavaScript 1.5 engine, which is open source. What that means is that a company, like eSignal, can add custom functions and methods to the exiting collection of core JavaScript functions and methods. eSignal did not develop the JavaScript language, we’ve only added functionality to it for specific uses in developing formulas for our advanced charting feature. All of the help documentation you will find in our web site only covers the specific extensions that we’ve added to our JavaScript engine within eSignal.

You are taking on the challenge of learning how to program as well as using our software. Our help documentation is geared towards teaching our users how to use our extensions rather than just how to program in JavaScript. At this point in your EFS formula development efforts I would recommend that you learn more about general programming with JavaScript and its core functionality. One book I would recommend is JavaScript The Definitive Guide by David Flanagan (4th Edition). I like this book because it has a large section that covers core JavaScript. For example, it has excellent examples on how to use arrays, loops, time functions and other methods. You can also visit this link that covers core JavaScript 1.5. Once you become more familiar with the basics of the JavaScript language you will have a better understanding of what is happening in the code and will be able to recognize what our extensions are versus core JavaScript. That will help you understand what to search for within our help documentation.

“ - A List of available Global Variables”

There isn’t a list of such variables. Creating global variables falls in the realm of core JavaScript. When you "var" a variable outside of main(), the variable becomes global where its value will be stored until you remove the formula form your chart. We do have an extension we’ve added to set global variables that can be accessed by other formulas running in your chart called setGlobalValue(sName, value) and getGlobalValue(sName). You can find these in our General Formula Reference guide.

“ - Constructs, methods for Strategy and alerts”

Your strategy or logic for triggering an alert or Strategy commands for back testing, depends on the logic you create in your formula. We have two documents that cover Strategy development. Guide to Developing eSignal Strategies will give you detailed examples and explanations of the various Strategy functions. Back Testing Reference Guide also outlines the functions and their parameters.

“ - Constructs, methods for drawing shapes on charts.”

Please visit the thread called Drawing Images, Shapes, and Text with EFS.

“ - There is no help or instructions to use any of the advanced charting tools. It happens that I used to use GET so I recognize many of them.”

You can learn more about the Advanced GET studies and theory at their web site. As far as other advanced charting tools, please visit our advanced charting tutorial or Appendix A – Advanced Charting Formulas & Studies in our on-line user manual.

I hope you find these resources helpful. We realize that it can be somewhat difficult finding everything on our web site. As I mentioned before, we are working on a better solution to this. If there is anything else you are having trouble finding just let us know. Thank you for choosing eSiganl and good luck with your formula development.

Sincerely,

[mbuta]

Re: Reply to post 'General Formula Reference Update?'

Jason,
Thank you for all your help and for taking the time to respond in such detail. I also can understand your position in defending eSignal.
You are right, I am new to Java Script but I don't thing one can expect that every trader be a Java programer as well. Java specifics should be encapsulated and present us with a more friendly environment.
I understand a little bit about computers and programming in general (I designed mainframes for over 25 years) and, I think, my questions were very specific and had nothing to do with Java Script.

Thank you,
Mihai


----- Original Message -----
From: <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, February 06, 2003 11:55 AM
Subject: Reply to post 'General Formula Reference Update?'


> Hello mbuta,
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