Timely. It so happens that - as a total coding tyro - I've been battling to adapt an EA to use an alternative indi to the one it natively references (nothing to do with this thread however). Thanks again, Maestro.SteveHopwood wrote:I see that someone other than Fmfx is interested in what is going on here, so a few more words of explanation.
Those of us who are not trained programmers have to adopt our own coding style. In doing so, consistency helps a lot. Look at the code snippet that offers up external inputs to the user when the EA uses a moving average:
Now remove the 'Ma' from each input:Code: Select all
extern string mai="----Moving average----"; extern int MaTF=0;//Time frame defaults to current chart extern int MaPeriod=50; extern int MaShift=0;//The MA Shift input extern string mame="Method: 0=sma; 1=ema; 2=smma; 3=lwma"; extern int MaMethod=1; extern string maap="Applied price: 0=Close; 1=Open; 2=High"; extern string maap1="3=Low; 4=Median; 5=Typical; 6=Weighted"; extern int MaAppliedPrice=0; ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// double MaVal; //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////What we are left with is a generic set of inputs that relate to the fields of indi's that we use all the time on our charts.Code: Select all
extern int TF=0;//Time frame defaults to current chart extern int Period=50; extern int Shift=0;//The MA Shift input extern string ame="Method: 0=sma; 1=ema; 2=smma; 3=lwma"; extern int Method=1; extern string ap="Applied price: 0=Close; 1=Open; 2=High"; extern string ap1="3=Low; 4=Median; 5=Typical; 6=Weighted"; extern int AppliedPrice=0; ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// double Val; //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
So, all I do when setting up a group of external inputs is place a shortened form of the indi in front of the variables to customise them - RsiTF, AtrTF, BandsTF etc
As my amateur coding evolves, so does my ability to structure my code in such a way that LUC has fewer and fewer opportunities to invite his buddies for lunch. Variable naming consistency helps me a lot.
