Undocumented classes

[paulca]

A general question - why are there undocumented classes, eg ChartControl, that are used by the built in indicators, eg VolumeZones. It would seem that the standard response of "because they may change or be eliminated in the future" doesn't really apply if they are being used in indicator code which is shipped with the product.

[NinjaTrader_RyanM1]

Hi Paulca,

We're just not able to support all elements of C# and chart control. It's available for experienced programmers to use, but if you lack the experience and knowledge to use you can get into situations that we're just not able to help with.

ChartControl can be modified by NinjaTrader at any time if needed. If we make any changes to chart control that break functionality for provided indicators, we will of course make changes to those indicators.

[paulca]

Ryan,

I understand that you cannot and should not provide support for any core C# language elements. I just find it a little ironic that you have to use undocumented NT classes to create a supplied indicator but do not provide doc of the same for us users/programmers. Product suggestion - doc & support all classes you use in supplied indicators because if you find a need to use those then we also are likely to have the same need.

[NinjaTrader_JoshP]

paulca,

You can and many people do use unsupported methods and properties including ChartControl. We just can't offer any assistance on using them. I understand where you are coming from, but we just cannot offer the level of assistance required for supporting ChartControl.

Please bear in mind the vast majority of our customers are not high-tiered C# programmers, but do love to explore. Opening up this can of worms is just not economically viable for us at this point in time since making this supported means even unskilled programmers will ask for help on it. This would quickly become a huge support drain since we would have to spend considerable time trying to teach and explain programming concepts well above most of our client's heads. The way we see it, using it in system indicators provides enough of a hint for our advanced programmer customers who may wish to use it in their own scripts that they can figure out what they need to know through experimentation. This really is the best of both worlds: advanced guys are not limited and our support resources are not exhausted. The later ultimately boils down to lower costs for every customer which is a much better deal for everyone than raising costs just to try and accommodate the small subset of individuals needing extra assistance on advanced programming techniques.

With that being said, expanding the scope of what we do support is always something on our list. From 6.5 to 7 we have already expanded it and going forward we do expect to expand it even further whenever possible.

[paulca]

Duly noted Josh, thanks.