Hello,
Nice work by Karthik and murthy msr. May i also put in a suggestion concerning the same topic.It is regarding the setting up and backup of database. When i initially started using Ami i never backed up the database properly. I was not sure which folder in Amibroker installation files i had to backup. What i did was i backed up the entire folder. So whenever i had to install Ami again i thougt i could use the backup.
But for me mostly the problem with Ami was chart layouts. The culprit being multiple installations at different drives for NSE Cash, F&O, and for BSE and another for Intraday trading. I did not know in the case of multiple installations chart layouts will go for six especially in any of the installations if lay out is checked in Tools, preferences, Miscellaneous menu.
But for saving new charts created or new indicators used you need to check layout button to save. So there is a possibility that in any of the installations i may leave the layout button checked accidently. This is enough to mess the chartlayouts in other installations. Some times i find my MA settings are changed and other problems. Tomasz has said it is not the problem with Amibroker but it uses a common windows registry for all installations.
Coming to my point i was bit naive not to backup the datafolder alone instead of the complete Ami installation folder. Charts layout can be done again if you do not have too many chart sheets or indicators. But reimporting data is a big problem and time consuming. When i started with AMI i had around 50 chart sheets with all the indicators possible. Now i use only maximum 2-3 chart sheets with 2-3 indicators plotted on it. So chart layouts is not a problem. Let us take my example.
A few days before i had come across a indicator which i would like to test with longer periods of data. Normally i use only 3 years data. So i removed my existing data and decided to import fresh all the NSE cash data from 1995. I used satyas extractor to download and convert the data.
But the problem was Ami was taking too long to import it. Minimum it will take 6-7 hours if you try it at one go(11 years data). I was so used to importing at high speed ( 2-3 years data) i was suprised when my attempt finished in few minutes. But when i checked charts i found it had imported only till 2002.
So what went wrong i could not find initially. So i went to database settings and found number of bars to be loaded was set at default 1000 ie for 1 or 2 years data. I changed it to 5000 but it takes awfully longtime to import if tried at one go. But if i split by three months each time it is faster.Three months data will be imported in 3-4 minutes.
My point is why dont you start with installation of AMI itself. The new comers can be told they need not have many multiple installations and they can use one installation for NSE cash, F&O, and BSE by creating new data bases in same installation.
For intraday only they need to have seperate installation. So that means only two installations. Plus about the earlier points i made about checking layouts menu and number of bars to be loaded.
The next major point is how to backup data in Ami folder. Or even how to backup layouts also. They also can be told they can change the default database path in prefernces menu if required. And also about the ask to save changed data button in preferences, miscellaneous menu. This will be very useful in case of reinstall.
For example today i tried out the new beta. But it will not save the data or layouts. So i had to reinstall earlier version.
I am not trying to point out that using AMI has problems . For me AMI is the best software i have come across.I have been using it for the past two to three years. I can say it convincingly after using Metastock, Fibotrader, Wealth lab, EL-wave, Neoticker, Dynamic trader and quite a few more. No other software is so easy to use and good to programme. It is far ahead of competition although i reliaze there could be differences of opinion.
Regards
Saji