Any news on precompiler directives?

[alanlopen]

I usually define directives like this, at the begining of the code :

define __AAA__
#ifndef __AAA__
define __BBB__
#endif


then in the code I use a lot of instances of :
#ifdef __AAA__
some code for AAA
#else//__BBB__
some slight change of code for BBB
#endif


But when I do that in Ninja, the compiler throws a lot of errors. Here

https://forum.ninjatrader.com/forum/ninjatrader-8/add-on-development/1201701-preprocessor-directives-support

it is said it is not supported, but a request was made. So what is the latest news on precompiler directives.

[bltdavid]

Have you tried them?
What errors are you getting?

They work fine. I use them regularly in my code.

It's pretty heavy-handed for NT to imply they won't work.

They work fine, just use them for code, not for properties.

That is, stay away from using preprocessor directives to
enable/disable compiler visibility for public properties.

-=o=-

The compiler generates NinjaScript magic code at the bottom
of each Indicator (but not Strategies or AddOns). This involves
quite of bit of searching for properties, which are usually all
grouped together in a single region in your code. But this is
just a suggested code organization technique, it's not required.
You could sprinkle your public properties into your code any way
you want -- the NT compiler would still find them and use them
in the auto-generated magic code. It helps that NT8 added the
new NinjaScriptProperty decoration for public properties, since
it is only these properties that need to be included in the auto
generated code. But, I digress.

My point is: the NT compiler's 'magic code generator' doesn't
understand the 'visibility factor' of code you turned 'off' using
a preprocessor directive. That is, despite what the compiler's
code emitter produces, the magic code property scanner sees
all properties -- because that code ignores the directives.
But, again, I digress.

-=o=-

Remember, when NT says 'unsupported', that does not really
say anything about whether it works or not -- it ONLY means
whether NT support folks will help you on that topic.

The point is: whether something 'will work' or not is always a
different question from whether something is 'supported' or not.

Their job is to support NinjaTrader product(s) and the NinjaScript
framework.

They don't 'support' ML.net, or nuget, or preprocessor directives,
or a myriad of other things because they didn't write that stuff.

The words 'supported' and 'unsupported' always need a bit of
context when used by NT support.

Just my 2˘.

[QuantKey_Bruce]

My point is: the NT compiler's 'magic code generator' doesn't
understand the 'visibility factor' of code you turned 'off' using
a preprocessor directive. That is, despite what the compiler's
code emitter produces, the magic code property scanner sees
all properties -- because that code ignores the directives.

It would be nice if the automatic code generator that puts the helper code at the bottom of indicators for instance caching, etc. were enhanced to support preprocessor directives like #ifdef, etc. Most likely, the reason it does not is simply that NinjaTrader did not anticipate that very many of its users would use this technique and yet it was judged to be not a trivial thing to add. (That having been said, if they can add it, it would be a plus.)

I definitely agree that just because something isn't "supported" doesn't mean it's impossible - what it means is it's beyond what they've agreed to help with or document and/or beyond what they warrant should continue to work in most future versions. It doesn't mean any more or any less.

[NinjaTrader_Jesse]

Hello alanlopen,

While you technically can use that feature of C# that is not something which NinjaScript supports at all so you may run into errors depending on the use case. In general we suggest avoiding using pre compiler directives because of that.

[alanlopen]

Have you tried them?
What errors are you getting?

They work fine. I use them regularly in my code.

It's pretty heavy-handed for NT to imply they won't work.

They work fine, just use them for code, not for properties.

That is, stay away from using preprocessor directives to
enable/disable compiler visibility for public properties.

just by putting

define __AAA__
#ifndef __AAA__
define __BBB__
#endif

at the top of the code gives error CS1024 CS1025 CS1028 lol. Apprently #ifndef is not defined

[alanlopen]

It's a pity the properties are not compatible with directives but I manage to do what so far

[jeronymite]

alanlopen The #ifndef pre-processor directive is part of C and C++ but not C#. To do the equivalent in C#, simply use "#if !whatever" to test if "whatever" has not been defined. You can find more information in the relevant Microsoft documentation.

Thanks.